Twilight: My Version
by Dewfrost
Summary: A fanfic of what I think's going to happen in Twilight. Please read!
1. Chapter 1

**I figure I'll probably waste away waiting for Twilight in September, so I wrote up a fanfic about what I think's going to happen. If you agree, disagree, or have any suggestions, put them in reviews. Hope you like it!**

The Gathering night flared cloudy and humid. Leafpool felt sleepy from the air, but her heart purred with excitement as well as anxiousness. What would she say to Crowfeather, if she saw him? Would he seek her out?

Cinderpelt noticed her worries, but she said nothing, only twitched her whiskers. But there was a rough look in her eyes, as if she wished that she could rebuke Leafpool, but couldn't bring herself to.

Squirrelflight walked beside her on the way there, and Leafpool wasn't surprised to see the familiar cloudy look in her green gaze as she saw Brambleclaw, who walked ahead of them.

"Why don't you speak to him?" Leafpool urged, knowing fully well that she was probably the last cat Squirrelflight should come to for such advice. "You obviously want to."

"Huh?" Squirrelflight snapped to attention. Then, "_No_, Leafpool! How can I, now?"

"Easily. Just apoligize."

"I didn't do anything wrong!" Squirrelflight protested.

"You've only insulted him and ignored him for the past moon..."

"Only because he's decided to be best friends with Hawkfrost! You know as well as I that he can't be trusted." Squirrelflight's tail whipped with the force of her anger.

"But he's Brambleclaw's brother. Are you really going to force him to only be friends with cats if you approve of them?" Leafpool's paws prickled uneasily.

"No. I'm only offering him some advice, and since he thinks that he's so above listening to everyone else..."

Leafpool sighed inwardly. She knew a cat just like that, but it wasn't Brambleclaw. Still, she would never say something so hurtful to Squirrelflight's face. Instead she only shook her head. "You do what you want, Squirrelflight. But don't go sidling up to Ashfur again. If you annoy Brambleclaw enough he might actually fight him, and we both know who'd win that battle."

She thought she saw her sister's whiskers twitch briefly before she leaped ahead, but to Leafpool's relief she bypassed Ashfur as well as Brambleclaw, pausing beside Sandstorm. Leafpool sank back into her own thoughts, and the lean WindClan warrior began to prowl around her mind again. She looked ahead to see Brackenfur and Sorreltail, matched step for step and their tails curled together as they walked. She was happy for her friend, but seeing them pushed the thorn in Leafpool's heart in even deeper. It seemed so unlikely that she would ever have that with Crowfeather. But was it truly possible?

_I love him. I really do._

But that didn't mean that it would work out. What about Graystripe and Silverstream? She had died bearing his kits, and he had to live with the pain of it for the rest of his life. It was proof that such things didn't always work out. And what about Feathertail and Crowfeather themselves?

Leafpool closed her eyes as the cats began to cross the fallen tree to the Gathering. _Tell me what to do, StarClan, _she prayed, lifting her head to the winds. Could she smell Crowfeather's scent on the breeze?

"Leafpool!"

The medicine cat's eyes snapped open and she stared around to see Spiderleg looking at her critically. "Are you all right?" he asked. "You were about to walk off of the tree!"

"Oh, sorry," meowed Leafpool hurriedly. "Just thinking."

"Are you sure?" he asked. "You look a bit odd."

"No, I'm all right," she mewed, shaking her head. "Looking forward to your first Gathering as a warrior?"

His quizzical look gave way to one of pride. "You bet," he purred, his long tail flicking around his legs. "But you are too, right? Firestar'll be announcing that you're a full medicine cat."

Leafpool nodded, and she felt her paws prickle with her own pride. She couldn't help looking forward to seeing the other medicine cats again; not as Cinderpelt's apprentice, but as their equal.

Ahead, Firestar paused on the end of the log, just as he had once done in Fourtrees. Then he flicked his tail and the cats began to leap off the log and onto the island. Leafpool sniffed the air as she looked around. The island was beautiful, and cats milled around, mewing their approval of it. Bushes and trees grew around its edge, but most of the cats were in the middle, where it was flat and grassy. An enormous oak grew in the middle of the place. Leafpool remembered Mothwing describing it to her, saying it would be the perfect place for the leaders to address the Clans.

Leafpool lifted her muzzle, sniffing the air hopefully, but she did not smell WindClan. Only RiverClan and ShadowClan so far. She sighed, and then watched as Brambleclaw sprang past her, into the deep throng. She wondered if he was looking for Hawkfrost.

Firestar and Sandstorm padded over to where Mistyfoot, Leopardstar, and Blackstar sat at the base of the tree. The medicine cat watched as they exchanged polite greetings. Leopardstar's gaze was wary. Leafpool wondered if she was embarrased about her warriors' actions during Mudclaw's betrayal.

"Leafpool!"

Her ears flicking at Mothwing's familiar voice, Leafpool made her way over to where the golden tabby cat sat, her tail flicking warmly. She felt a flicker of unease when she saw that Hawkfrost was beside her, and hoped that Squirrelflight wasn't watching.

"Hi, there," meowed Mothwing, poking her in the side affectionately. "I've been yowling at you long enough for a half-deaf elder to hear. I suppose I should get used to you ignoring me, now that we're equals and all!"

Leafpool shook her head. "Sorry," she replied, "My mind's wandering tonight." Well, that was true.

"Hello, Leafpool," Hawkfrost meowed. Leafpool forced herself to look at him squarely, and she found surprising friendliness in his icy eyes. "I heard that you were made a full medicine cat. Congratulations."

"Thank you," said Leafpool, taken aback.

"There's no need to be wary of him," Mothwing told her, gently defending her brother against Leafpool's uncertain gaze. "He made a couple of mistakes in the past moons, but nothing that he won't learn from."

Hawkfrost lifted his head in agreement. "Onewhisker and Leopardstar both accepted my apology, which was more than I could hope for."

Leafpool nodded, and was just wondering if there was a polite way to excuse herself to wait for Crowfeather when she heard a familiar mew. "Hawkfrost! There you are! I was looking-"

Brambleclaw paused when he spotted the two medicine cats, and abruptly sat down. "Oh, hi," he meowed quickly.

"Greetings, brother," mewed Hawkfrost, leaning forward to touch noses with Brambleclaw. "I'm glad to see you."

"You too," Brambleclaw responded. He looked pleased to see his half-brother again, but he turned his eyes to Leafpool for a moment, a pleading message in them. _Don't tell Squirrelflight!_

Hawkfrost's gaze flickered back to Mothwing. "This is our sister, Mothwing," he meowed. "I'm not sure if you two have met before."

"We haven't," Mothwing meowed, nodding politely to Brambleclaw. Her amber eyes were distinctly curious. "My brother has nothing but praise for you."

"And I'm sure you're an asset to RiverClan, as their medicine cat," Brambleclaw replied. He too looked curious, eager, even, to meet another of his kin.

Leafpool, who had been intending to leave, was caught up in her own wonderment. Hawkfrost and Brambleclaw looked so alike- the reflection of the other except for their eyes. Mothwing looked nothing like her brother, though she too held herself in the odd way he did; completely straight, her tail and head raised as if she was intending to stop any attacker before they had a chance to strike. But her eyes were not round, cool, and blue, but amber, and as she saw them together, she realized that they were the same amber as Brambleclaw's. As Tigerstar's.

The three kin were so similiar, in ways that they themselves hadn't realized. Leafpool couldn't help wondering if their futures were locked together. But would they be fighting with one another, or against? And if they were all on one side, what side would that be?

**Once again, please review!**


	2. Chapter 2

**Thanks to those that reviewed. Here's the second chapter, from Squirrelflight's POV.**

Squirrelflight pushed her way through the throng of cats. She saw a familiar tortoiseshell figure ahead and leaped over. "Tawnypelt!"

The ShadowClan warrior turned around, twitching her ears in greeting. "There you are. Where's Brambleclaw?"

Squirrelflight shrugged, pretending not to care. "How should I know?"

"Uh-oh," mewed Tawnypelt. "Had a spat, have you? What'd he do wrong now?"

"He nosed up to the biggest traitor in the forest," Squirrelflight replied angrily, before she remembered Tawnypelt was Tigerstar's daughter too. She wondered if she could take it back, but her friend had already made the connection. "Hawkfrost? He's still around, then? Blackstar reckoned that Leopardstar should have chased him off after he involved ShadowClan in his and Mudclaw's betrayal."

Squirrelflight wanted to say, "She should have," but didn't. Instead she asked, "What do you think?

"Oh, I don't know," Tawnypelt mewed, shaking her head. "It was stupid of him to join with Mudclaw- even more to try to involve my Clan- but he only did it because he thought that he was doing StarClan's bidding."

"That's what he _says_," Squirrelflight meowed. "But before he died Mudclaw told Brambleclaw that Hawkfrost had done it so that Mudclaw would help him take over RiverClan later."

"There's just as much a chance that Mudclaw was lying as Hawkfrost," Tawnypelt pointed out.

Squirrelflight knew she was right, and shook her head in confusion. "It's more than that," she admitted. "I just know that he's keeping things from me. He acts like he doesn't trust me anymore."

"But you know he does," Tawnypelt meowed, narrowing his green eyes.

"No, I don't." Squirrelflight whipped her tail around. "Would _you _trust a cat that let a traitor go in battle? That said he wouldn't choose another over you one moment, and then rejects you like crowfood the next?"

Tawnypelt twitched her ears. "I don't know, Squirrelflight, but it seems to be that you're looking for the worst. If you want to know what's going on with Brambleclaw, just make an effort to ask. He'll tell you."

Squirrelflight lifted her eyes to the moon. _That's just the thing, _she thought worriedly. _I don't know if he will._

At that moment one of the leaders let out a yowl for the meeting to begin. Squirrelflight and Tawnypelt turned towards the huge oak. Onewhisker, Firestar, Leopardstar, and Blackstar were perched on low branches. To Squirrelflight they looked almost mystical, the shadows of the bare branches turning half their fur dark, the rest of them silver by the starlight and the reflection of it on the lake.

"Welcome, cats of all Clans," called Firestar, "To our first Gathering on the island. We have decided to call this tree the Great Oak, in memory of the Great Rock that we once addressed you from."

Murmurs of approval came from the cats below, and Squirrelflight agreed with them. Naming the tree would further assure the Clans that this was their new home; where they belonged. Firestar nodded with them before he began again. "ThunderClan brings good news to tonight's Gathering. Our medicine cat apprentice, Leafpaw, has been given her full status, and will now be known as Leafpool, in honor of the Moonpool that she has found for all four Clans."

Squirrelflight felt a rush of pride for her sister and joined in with the murmurs of approval. They were louder than the usual greeting for new warriors- the ginger she-cat wondered if that was because of Leafpool's deed, or because of the Clans' new friendships.

Firestar stepped backward, and Onewhisker took his place. Squirrelflight saw that he looked a lot more confident than he had before in the past moons- but was that because of Mudclaw's absence, or his visit to the Moonpool?

"I traveled to the Moonpool," he meowed, "And gained my nine lives. I will now be known as Onestar, and Ashfoot is my official deputy."

Nods and approval came from all around. Onestar had no more news, so Blackstar took his place. He had no remarkable news, and Squirrelflight turned to Tawnypelt. "Won't he mention how his warriors died when they tried to invade the ThunderClan camp? And that they sided with Mudclaw?"

"Not if he doesn't have to," Tawnypelt mewed, her eyes on her leader. "Why would he give himself trouble when he could avoid it?"

Then Leopardstar came forward. After an announcement of a new apprentice, she took a breath. "Onestar has forgiven my warriors for their actions in the past moon, and so have I. They will all remain in RiverClan."

Blackstar's eyes flashed in the moonlight. "What about Hawkfrost?" he growled. "He was the one who involved _my _Clan in all of this. If it weren't for him none of my warriors would have died!"

"Here we go," mumbled Tawnypelt.

Leopardstar turned on him. "It is none of your business how I punish my warriors!"

Blackstar lashed his long white tail. "If you ask me, that rouge has caused enough trouble! We should have never taken him in. He has bad blood."

Squirrelflight felt Tawnypelt shudder beside her. Bad blood. She shared Tigerstar's blood too, even if, unlike Brambleclaw and Hawkfrost, she didn't look just like him. She felt a surge of unexpected sympathy. Was that what it was like for Brambleclaw, too, being judged all the time?

"Bad blood, Blackstar?" Firestar leaped nimbly from his branch to one in between Leopardstar and Blackstar. "How long ago was it that you yourself followed Tigerstar? This has nothing to do with him. We left all memory of him in the old forest."

_Did we? _thought Squirrelflight suspiciously. No matter that Tigerstar himself was no longer here. He had left four of his kin in the forest, one of which she had once thought would become her mate.

The tenseness on the island had faded, and the leaders had finished talking. Still, the Gathering hadn't ended yet, and the cats milled around, talking to one another. Squirrelflight searched for Leafpool, or Crowfeather, since she hadn't seen him yet, but couldn't find either. She spied Brambleclaw, though, saying good-bye to Hawkfrost. Squirrelflight watched from a distance as the two powerful tabbies touched noses. Brambleclaw touched his tail in an encouraging gesture to the blue-eyed cat's shoulder. Squirrelflight saw the RiverClan cat look anxiously up at the Great Oak more than once, as if he expected Leopardstar to go back on her decision right away.

A strange feeling came over Squirrelflight then, and it took longer than it should have for her to realize that, for the very first time, she was feeling sorry for Hawkfrost.


	3. Chapter 3

**Here's Chapter 3. We're back at Leafpool's POV now. What happens when she meets Crowfeather for the first time since he saved her...**

Almost as soon as the leaders had finished speaking, Leafpool heard a voice calling behind her. She had been sitting very near to the Great Oak, and the voice was calling from a more secluded area, behind a gorse bush. She padded over in confusion to see Crowfeather. Seeing him brought a wave of emotion flooding all over again inside of Leafpool until she felt almost light-headed. She shook herself and stared at him, waiting for him to speak. He had called her over, after all.

Crowfeather spoke without any sort of introduction. "Leafpool, I'm sorry. I never should have said...what I said like that. It wasn't fair to you, I know it wasn't."

"It's okay," Leafpool choked out, though some part of her heart fell hard. Was he going to take it back, regretting that he'd ever said it? Would she have to forget all she felt, without ever having a chance to say it to him? _Could _she do that?

"No, it's not okay," Crowfeather meowed. "I got ahead of myself. It was just, you were there, and you were about to fall. Like Feathertail did."

The last words were almost a sob, as if speaking it aloud was more difficult than she could ever know. Leafpool stared at him silently as he went on, "But I saved you. Saved you when I couldn't save her. When she died because I got trapped..."

He broke off with a shudder of memory. Leafpool felt a deep rush of pity for him, and mewed, as comfortingly as she knew how, "It's not your fault, Crowfeather. Feathertail died because she wanted to save you. It wasn't _because _of you."

He looked up at her with blue eyes brimming with emotion. "I don't think I'll ever be able to convince myself of that. But...you live in my thoughts, Leafpool. You haunt my dreams. I don't want to forget Feathertail, I don't want to stop grieving for her, but I _can't _forget you."

"Does that mean you want to forget me?" Leafpool asked, afraid of the answer, whatever it was.

His fur bristled as he spoke, as if he was just realizing it himself. "No."

"I don't either," Leafpool admitted, knowing that as she spoke she was violating her oath to StarClan, her oath as a medicine cat. She felt like bowing her head to the cats of StarClan, but she couldn't tear her eyes away from Crowfeather.

The lean tom shook his head, his whiskers waving in the wind. "I'm sorry, Leafpool, you don't know how sorry, but I can't see you like this. Not now, not when I think I'll be forgetting Feathertail. No matter what else I feel, I won't ever be disloyal to her. But if I see a sign from StarClan, something that tells me she approves...then I'll think."

Leafpool knew what he said was fair, and was how it should be. But she couldn't stop the pain in her heart from increasing, and was grateful that Crowfeather couldn't see it. She leaned in close, her nose brushing his muzzle. "It's all right," she mewed softly. "I'll wait to speak to you again."

He nodded, and he lifted heavily to his paws, taking his time, as if hoping that the sign might come now, so that he didn't have to leave. But nothing happened as he turned, and Leafpool watched him, her head swimming with thoughts. She suddenly found her voice. "Crowfeather, wait!"

He half-turned. "What is it?"

She got up too, and padded to his side. She spoke in a mere whisper, and did not look at him for the fear of what she would see in his eyes. "What you said before, at the camp...I feel it too," she mewed. "As much as you."

It was she who turned away and squeezed into the throng of cats, leaving him behind. She felt her insides fill with pain, but she knew that this was all that could have happened. _You're a medicine cat, Leafpool! _she told herself. _Even if he was ready to forget Feathertail, that didn't mean that you were ready too!_

But she was, she was with an intensity that frightened her. Did her oaths to StarClan mean so little that she was ready to discard them for a WindClan warrior that she had, not so long ago, hated with every whisker on her?

She found herself settled with the other medicine cats, except for Mothwing, who she supposed was still with Hawkfrost and Brambleclaw. Littlecloud gave her a friendly flick of his tail. "There you are!" he meowed.

Barkface's eyes were warm, too. "I was beginning to think that I wasn't going to have a chance to officially greet the newest medicine cat of the forest!" he purred, and then crouched to nudge a cat at his side. "Meet Icepaw," he meowed. "My new apprentice."

The small cat was pure white, except for a splash of black on his side . He looked up at Leafpool with large blue eyes, and she was struck with how young he looked. "Hi," he squeaked.

Leafpool bent to touch noses with him in welcome. "Hello. Good luck as Barkface's apprentice."

"If he gives you any trouble," Cinderpelt added, her ears twitching in amusement, "Just give his whiskers a tug and remind him that a little patience wouldn't hurt!"

Barkface's tail curled up in reluctant amusement, and Littlecloud purred. Watching them, Leafpool felt suddenly unworthy. Did she deserve her place as a medicine cat while she dared dream about a future with Crowfeather? And what about Barkface, Littlecloud, and Cinderpelt themselves? Did they too have secret yearnings for mates of their own? Or was this StarClan's way of showing Leafpool that she had chosen the wrong path?

Whitepaw came padding over to her and Cinderpelt. "Firestar says it's time to go," she meowed, dipping her head to the medicine cats.

"All right," mewed Cinderpelt, touching noses with Littlecloud. "Come on, Leafpool."

Leafpool twitched her ears in farewell to the others before following the crippled she-cat. She looked around to see the WindClan cats already climbing the fallen log. She spotted Crowfeather and watched him for a moment, though he didn't see her. Then Cinderpelt's voice made her turn back.

"I should tell you, Leafpool," she meowed, obviously having seen where the tabby had been looking, "it would be wise to stay away from Crowfeather. Your places are different enough; it shouldn't be difficult."

Leafpool said nothing, but she twitched her ears to show she had heard her former mentor's words. As she padded beside the gray she-cat she was still silent, pondering over all that had happened. Sheglanced sideways at the medicine catbeside her, feeling momentarily wretched.Cinderpelt's warning was well and good, she knew. But it had come far too late.

**Reviews are appriciated!**


	4. Chapter 4

**Here's a Squirrelflight&Brambleclaw chapter, from Brambleclaw's POV. Thanx to those that reviewed!**

Brambleclaw stirred in his nest the morning after the Gathering, finding that it was already sunhigh. He shook scraps of moss from his pelt and looked around. Only Rainwhisker and Dustpelt were here, sleeping after taking the dawn patrol. The rest of the warriors were out already. Brambleclaw yawned and forced his way out of the den as well, blinking as the bright sunlight caught him off guard.

The camp was in a familiar bustle of activity, cats padding back and forth with fresh-kill in their jaws. Whitepaw was clearing the elders' moss. She looked tired from the job and Brambleclaw realized that she had to do it all alone now- she was the only apprentice left, now that Spiderleg and Squirrelflight were warriors. He bounded over to her.

"I'll take you hunting, if you want," he offered.

She looked up from the moss, excitement in her green eyes. "Okay! I've only got this bit left, anyway."

"I'll help you with it," Brambleclaw meowed, and he bent down to take half the moss. They delivered it to the elders, and then set off for the camp exit. "We should get another warrior to go with us," Brambleclaw meowed.

Whitepaw nodded, and her eyes found Squirrelflight, who was just leaving Leafpool and Cinderpelt's den. "Hey, Squirrelflight!" she called. "Want to go hunting with me and Brambleclaw?"

Brambleclaw fully expected for her to say no, and he was caught off guard when her green gaze passed uncertainly over him and she mewed, "Sure."

As she padded over to join them, Brambleclaw didn't miss Ashfur's surprised and envious look from where he sat, sharing tongues with Sootfur. Brambleclaw flicked his tail, partly pleased with himself and partly wondering if Squirrelflight had only agreed so that along the way she could stamp down the fact that she was no longer speaking to him.

"Let's go up to that abandoned Twolegplace that you and Dustpelt and Thornclaw found," suggested the ginger warrior, once they were out of the camp. "I haven't seen it yet, and Thornclaw says it's overflowing with mice!"

"It is," Brambleclaw meowed, remembering. "Okay, this way."

He led them through the forests, recalling the way he had taken last time. Whitepaw and Squirrelflight followed, and though she didn't say anything, Whitepaw's eyes kept flickering from him to Squirrelflight and back again. Brambleclaw suddenly wondered if she had suggested Firestar's daughter for the patrol on purpose. Maybe her father, Cloudtail, had put her up to it.

They reached the broken Twoleg nest, and Whitepaw looked at it nervously. "We're going in _that_?" she objected.

"It's safe, I promise," Brambleclaw meowed. "There aren't any Twolegs in it."

She lifted her muzzle and tasted the air. "The scent is stale."

"Right," he mewed, impressed. He wondered if it was time she was made a warrior. She had started training before Squirrelflight, after all, and Squirrelflight had been a warrior ever since they had come to the new place.

"I know one thing that isn't stale," Squirrelflight meowed, her eyes gleaming mischieviously, "The prey-scent. Let's go!"

She took the lead now, heading towards the place with her ears pricked. Suddenly she sank low, signaling to the others to do the same. Brambleclaw spotted what she had a moment later; a fat mouse, chewing on something. His claws unsheathed, but Squirrelflight was already lunging. Soon she held the kill, limp, in her jaws, and began to bury it.

Whitepaw headed farther out, apparently still wary of the Twoleg nest, while Squirrelflight and Brambleclaw hunted together around it. They didn't say much until Brambleclaw caught a squirrel. While he was burying it, she watched him, and mewed, "Some Gathering last night, huh?"

"Yeah," he agreed, his eyes still on his kill.

"Hawkfrost seemed worried."

Brambleclaw pricked his ears for the scathing tone as she spoke of his half-brother, but there was none. He wondered if Leafpool had told her about his meeting with him and Mothwing, but it didn't seem like it. She went on, "Tawnypelt says that Blackstar wants Hawkfrost out of the forest."

"But Leopardstar doesn't," Brambleclaw pointed out.

"Still, how much energy will she spend protecting a rouge-born cat?" Squirrelflight wondered. Brambleclaw lifted his head. "You don't mean rouge-born, do you?" he growled. "You mean _Tigerstar's son_."

"No I don't," Squirrelflight meowed, her eyes wide. But Brambleclaw didn't believe it. What else would she mean? Why else would she be so wary of him?

"I don't get why you're always so defensive about Tigerstar," meowed Squirrelflight. "I didn't even mention him, and there you go, yowling about why it doesn't matter."

"I wasn't-"

"Look, Brambleclaw, get it in your fat head that I don't _care _if you're Tigerstar's son. I don't care if Hawkfrost is. What I do care about is that he was with Mudclaw, trying to take over the forest. And what I do care about is that you don't trust me anymore."

"Yes I do," Brambleclaw meowed, shocked. "I trust you more than any cat, Squirrelflight!"

"Then why don't you tell me what's really going on with you?"

"I didn't keep anything from you!"

"Yes you do! You don't ever tell me what's bothering you, you just let it bug you for a day and then nose up to me when you're done with it. Why don't you ever just _tell me? _"

Brambleclaw opened him mouth to speak, but Squirrelflight was finished talking. She turned away, racing back towards the camp, pausing to pick up her prey. Brambleclaw sighed after her, wondering at what she had said. Was it true that he never told her anything? Was it true that it really didn't bother her that he had Tigerstar's blood?

He rounded the corner of the abandoned Twoleg nest and almost tripped over Whitepaw, who was crouched there. She stared at him guiltily for a moment, and then mewed, "Well, that went well."

**That's right, they're not back together yet! Mwahahaha...don't worry, I love Brambleclaw and Squirrelflight together, I just thought it shouldn't be that easy...**


	5. Chapter 5

**Thanx to all my reviewers! You all are great, and keep up all your fics. This new one's at Squirrelflight's POV.**

Squirrelflight's jaws were crammed with fresh-kill as she staggered back to camp. She wasn't just fighting the heavy load though; the sorrow that closed in around her was like the jaws of an enemy that she couldn't escape. After stumbling several times she gave up and dropped her kill and sat down, bowing her head.

It never worked out, did it? She had been ready to give Brambleclaw another chance after the Gathering, but there he went again, accusing her of things she didn't do. She hadn't even _mentioned _Tigerstar, and he thought she was talking about him. Why didn't he believe her when she said she didn't care?

_I miss him, _Squirrelflight thought bitterly. _I miss him so much. But all he ever does is make it worse. _

But she knew, in some rational part of her, that she was making it worse too. Still, if it was going to be so hard to fix things in between them, was it even worth it?

"Squirrelflight?"

The ginger she-cat jerked her head up at the voice of her father and she quickly picked her prey up as he appeared through the undergrowth. "Squirrelflight, what are you doing here? I thought you went hunting."

"I did," Squirrelflight mumbled through her catch. "Can't you see that?"

Firestar's eyes widened. "What's wrong?"

"Nothing." She lifted her head, trying to blink the sorrow and frustration away from her eyes.

"It's Brambleclaw, isn't it?"

The sound of his name made Squirrelflight fall apart. "I don't know what to do," she wailed, dumping her fresh-kill on the ground and leaping over towards him, burying her muzzle in his flame-colored fur. "When I try to speak to him, he always thinks I'm judging him because he's Tigerstar's son, and he doesn't listen to me when I try to warn him about Hawkfrost."

"Do you judge him?" Firestar asked, staring down at her. "For being Tigerstar's son, I mean."

"No, of course not," Squirrelflight meowed instinctively. Her father looked at her closely, and under the gaze of his leaf-green eyes she found she couldn't lie. "Well...maybe," she meowed falteringly. "I didn't use to, not on the trip to the sun-drown place. But now, since he talks to Hawkfrost-"

"You think they're alike?" Firestar suggested gently.

Squirrelflight nodded miserably. She hadn't even realized it herself before he mentioned it. But was it true? Was Brambleclaw right in that she judged him, just like the other cats did? And was she doing the same for Hawkfrost?

"They look alike, Squirrelflight," meowed Firestar quietly. "But does that mean they act alike, too?"

"I...I don't know," Squirrelflight stuttered. "Maybe. Sometimes. Brambleclaw didn't try to take over WindClan like Hawkfrost did, but he always sides with him when they're together."

"They are brothers," Firestar pointed out.

"But that doesn't mean that he should side with Hawkfrost over...over me," Squirrelflight finished with embarrassement.

Firestar bent to give her fur a couple of licks. "I trust Brambleclaw," he meowed. "There was a time, when he was a kit, that I didn't. But he's proved himself to the Clan many times over, and he deserves your trust. More than any cat."

Squirrelflight knew she was right, but something pricked in the back of her mind. "Do you trust Brambleclaw?" she mewed. "Enough to be your deputy?"

Firestar flinched visibly, and he took a step back. "I've already said that I won't make a new deputy until- if- I'm certain Graystripe won't come back," he meowed.

"But, if Graystripe doesn't come back, will you make your deputy Brambleclaw?" Squirrelflight wanted to know. "I mean, he's one of your best warriors, he made the journey to the sun-drown place, he's a good leader. If I didn't hate him right now I'd say he was the best choice for deputy."

Her last remark was intended to lighten the mood, but Firestar's eyes stayed dark. "Brambleclaw is one of ThunderClan's best warriors," he meowed slowly. "I trust him with my life. But deputy?"

It was if he was asking himself, and when he answered, his voice had a high note in it, a note that Squirrelflight had never heard before. "Brambleclaw is a good warrior, Squirrelflight, and I mean that. But I'm afraid that he's just as ambitious as Tigerstar. And I don't ever want to do anything to awaken that ambition in him."

He touched his tail to her shoulder and then set off back for the camp. Squirrelflight stared after him, completely stunned, for the note that she had heard in his voice had been fear.

_But Firestar doesn't get scared, _she thought, almost puzzled. _Never. _

Then it occured to her that maybe, while he did get scared, this was the first time he had let her see it.

**I put that in because that's why I thought Firestar was being so hard on Brambleclaw in Starlight. I'm going back to Leafpool and stuff in the next chappie, don't worry!**


	6. Chapter 6

**YAY, Chapter 6 is up! A big WOOT, 'cause I love typing that (don't know why). We're back at Leafpool's POV. I think I'm going in order from Leafpoolto Squirrelflightto Brambleclaw's POV for the chappies, but I might change it up later. Anyway, hope you like it!**

When Squirrelflight returned to camp, Leafpool didn't even have to look at her to know how upset she was. She could feel the distress pushing off of her like the warning before a storm. She padded out of hers and Cinderpelt's den, her jaws crammed with yarrow root, watching as her sister staggered over to the fresh-kill pile, dropped her prey, and then sat abruptly down as if she could not walk another step.

Leafpool set down her roots and leaped over to her. "What's wrong with you? You look like your piece of fresh-kill just bit you."

Squirrelflight turned to look at her, and Leafpool was confused and worried by the bleary distrust in her eyes. But not distrust for her, but for some other cat..._Brambleclaw?_

"What happened?" Leafpool asked again, sititng down beside her sister and touching her head with her tail. "Come on, it can't be that bad."

"It is," Squirrelflight meowed, but she sat up. As she recounted her fight with Brambleclaw, and her conversation with Firestar afterward, the young medicine cat felt a chill run through her. It had never occured to her that her father might distrust Brambleclaw. But that was what it sounded like.

"What do I do, Leafpool?" Squirrelflight bleated.

"Do you _want _to forgive him?" Leafpool asked, all the time wondering what Squirrelflight was waiting for an apology for. Brambleclaw's sharpness with her, maybe? Or was she just waiting for him to admit that she was right?

"Yes!" Squirrelflight meowed. "But...Leafpool, do you think Firestar's right? Do you think he's as ambitious as Tigerstar?"

At that moment Brambleclaw walked into camp. His amber eyes were downcast, his tail dragging, as if he felt as bad about his quarrel with Squirrelflight as the she-cat did herself. Leafpool stared at him. He was Brambleclaw, a cat that she had known since she were a kit. A cat that she had never instinctively associated with Tigerstar, considering she'd never met the evil cat herself. But the name of the former ThunderClan deputy sent shivers down her pelt, made her remember all the terrible stories she'd heard about him; the cat with the tabby pelt dark and mottled like a molding leaf, the cat with the amber eyes that gleamed dark and cold like stars that had been torn away from the silver of moonlight. And staring at Brambleclaw, she knew one thing: Brambleclaw might not _be _Tigerstar, but he carried many similarities of him. So many, in fact, it may be impossible to overlook them all.

&&&

"Leafpool!"

The medicine cat jerked her head up. She had been dreaming. Again. Ever since the Gathering, she had found it increasingly difficult to concentrate on anything. Her mind always wandered to Crowfeather, and, try as she might, she could not get him out of her mind. He was beginning to dwell in her dreams as well, though she never spoke to him through them. Rather, he stood in hiding, in the shade where the starlight and sunlight did not reach him. His blue eyes would gleam at her like the shimmer of clear water, and there was a message in them, one that she could never puzzle out.

Sorreltail was padding towards her, and Leafpool thanked StarClan it wasn't Cinderpelt again. Her former mentor was already suspicious enough, and didn't need to catch her in another daydream. The tortoiseshell she-cat's eyes were bright, and Leafpool was surprised that she didn't see Brackenfur anywhere- he hardly left Sorreltail's side these days.

"Where's your shadow?" she asked the warrior with a twitch of her whiskers, but Sorreltail shook off the gentle teasing. "Want to go hunting? Do you have the time to look up from your herbs and stuff?"

Leafpool let out a purr. "Sure. My eyes are starting to water from the smell of these things, anyway."

She tucked the thyme leaves back in their crack in the rock and then left the medicine cats' den with Sorreltail. The two young she-cats headed out of the camp and set off through the forest. They were running at a fast pace, despite the freezing cold cloudy day.

"It makes you wonder if leaf-bare'll ever be over," Sorreltail commented, scowling at the sky. "Seriously, I've forgotten what sunlight looks like."

"Try taking care of the elders," Leafpool meowed, her eyes narrowing mischieviously. "They run Cinderpelt and I out of poppy seeds, complaining about aches from the cold winds."

Sorreltail let ouf a purr of amusement that was cut short as she sighted a squirrel, dashing out in front of them with a seed in its mouth. The tortoiseshell warrior fell into the hunters' crouch, and she lifted a white paw slowly, set it on the turf before her. Leafpool lingered behind, her tail swishing softly but overwise completely still.

Suddenly the squirrel's head jerked up, and it gazed around. But at the same moment Sorreltail lunged, her claws extended. She leaped upon the prey, finishing it with enviable speed. She looked bad at Leafpool. "A bit old, but it should keep Mousefur happy," she meowed.

Leafpool padded forward to join her, but sudden scent stopped her dead. "What is that?" she murmured to Sorreltail.

"Prey?" her friend replied, oblivious.

"No. It's catscent, but I don't recognize any Clan scent in it," Leafpool mewed, her neck fur beginning to bristle. Rouges!

Sorreltail abandoned the squirrel and took a few hops forward, her face lifted to the winds. They were close to the WindClan border, but further up, almost on the trail to the Moonpool. "I smell it too," she announced, after a moment. "And I don't think it's WindClan, and it's definately not ThunderClan." She looked around, her amber gaze suddenly fearful. "We should get back to camp and get another patrol to check it out," she warned. "Brackenfur or somebody..."

Her tone was serious, but it pricked Leafpool right in the heart. Maybe it was because of how close they were to WindClan, or maybe it was because of the look in Sorreltail's eyes. That look of instinctive need, as if whenever she was afraid she needed him beside her. It was the same look that she had seen in Crowfeather's eyes, that night behind the gorse bush.

"You don't know how lucky you are, Sorreltail," meowed Leafpool quietly, all thought of the rouge-scent forgotten in her mind. "Lucky to have him to turn to. I don't have that, do I? And I never will. No matter how much I hope to StarClan, they don't answer me!"

The last words were spat through clenched teeth. Then Leafpool turned and leaped away. It wasn't until she was halfway back to camp before she realized she'd said too much.

**Ooooo, a bit of a cliffie there. Will Sorreltail find out? Maybe! (I haven't actually decided yet, so you all should be the first to know) Reviews are appriciated, thanx!**


	7. Chapter 7

**Squirrelflight's POV now, people. I might go back to Leafpool next chappie (probably the one after, you'll see why after you read this one). Anyway, thanks for the reviews, and I hope you like the update! **

She avoided him. That was it. She just didn't speak to Brambleclaw, didn't go near him, didn't even look at him. Firestar knew what she was doing, and she knew that he thought it was his fault, because of what he'd said. But the thing was that it _wasn't. _It went much deeper than that. It was because, deep down, Squirrelflight didn't trust him anymore, and she couldn't lie to herself any longer and say that she did.

The warriors were gathered around Firestar a few mornings later, waiting for orders for hunting and patrols. Squirrelflight bounded over in time for him to tell them all about the rouges that Leafpool and Sorreltail had scented on hunting patrol.

_Rouges! _thought Squirrelflight, alarmed. _But why didn't Leafpool tell me?_

Her sister had been so distracted lately. Squirrelflight couldn't tell if there was something really wrong, or if it was perhaps the foreboding message she'd recieved from StarClan, the night she'd recieved her full name. Or maybe she'd gotten another message, since then?

"Dustpelt," meowed Firestar, "I want you to patrol that whole area, up the WindClan border and over. Take Rainwhisker and Thornclaw with you."

The senior warrior nodded and gathered the two younger cats. Then they set off for the camp entrance. Squirrelflight watching until her father called her name. "Squirrelflight," he told her, "I want you to head up the ShadowClan border. Take Whitepaw, Spiderleg, and...Brambleclaw with you."

Squirrelflight stared at him, knowing that he had called Brambleclaw on purpose. She felt a prickle of anger at him for getting involved, but knew that she couldn't argue. Instead she headed for the exit after Dustpelt with her head held high, the other three cats behind her.

As they trooped up the ShadowClan border, Squirrelflight kept her nose to the air, still ignoring Brambleclaw as best as she could when he was right behind her.

"I smell ShadowClan," Spiderleg mewed, lashing his tail.

"We're right by their border," Brambleclaw pointed out. "What else would you smell?"

"But it's strong," Squirrelflight realized. "And fresh. _Too _fresh. They hunted here, on our side of the border!"

"And sprayed their scent," added Spiderleg, sniffing at a tree and recoiling. "As if this is their side of the border."

"Wait!" meowed Whitepaw suddenly, her green eyes flaring a warning. "ShadowClan warriors! They're coming!"

The ThunderClan cats had just enough time to prepare themselves before some ShadowClan cats appeared out of the undergrowth. Rowanclaw was at their head, and hostility was cold in all their eyes.

"What are you doing here?" hissed the ginger tom, padding up to them. The two ShadowClan cats behind him glared, their fur bristling, and another one, younger -probably an apprentice- sprang to their side. Squirrelflight noted that they would be evenly matched, should it come to a fight.

"We aren't in your territory," Brambleclaw meowed, flattening his ears. Squirrelflight glanced at him. Was it just her, or was he too quick to grow hostile? Spiderleg, however, didn't seem to have any objection. The young black warrior snarled, a low growl in his throat. Whitepaw's fluffy pelt that she had inherited from Cloudtail was bristling.

"You passed our scent marking," Rowanclaw informed them, narrowing his eyes.

Squirrelflight remembered the ShadowClan scent marker that had been too close, inside ThunderClan land. _But we haven't passed the border! _she thought. _Why are they acting like this is their territory?_ "We're still a couple of tail-lengths away," she meowed, feeling herself getting angry. Maybe Brambleclaw was right.

"It's not surprising," meowed one of the warriors behind Rowanclaw. "ThunderClan doesn't mentor their apprentices well enough to tell when they pass borders!"

Fury flared in Squirrelflight's mind, and she threw herself forward upon the tom, noting that it was she and not Brambleclaw that had started the fight. Screeching, they tumbled over in the undergrowth. Squirrelflight faintly heard the others join the battle, but she was soon completely focused on her own struggle.

She sank her teeth deep in the shoulder of the gray-and-white tom while her claws shredded his sides, but he wriggled free like a fish and dove forward, pinning her to the ground. She writhed as his hind claws dug at her soft belly, and, as she felt her fur being ripped free of her, she felt her claws dig into him. Seizing her chance she kicked viciously out, flinging him into a tree where he slumped to the ground, stunned.

Squirrelflight looked around and saw Spiderleg swiping at the other ShadowClan warrior while Whitepaw and the other apprentice danced back and forth, claws extended, teeth glaring in the sunlight. Rowanclaw and Brambleclaw spat and snarled, striking at one another. The dark tabby didn't look like he needed any help, and neither did Brackenfur's apprentice, so she instead headed for Spiderleg, leaping onto the back of his opponent, grasping a firm hold on him. He screeched, flipping over to dislodge her, but Spiderleg leaped when he did, and delivered a bite to his ear.

Sudden cries reached Squirrelflight's ears, and she turned in horror to see two more ShadowClan cats heading their way, one of them Cedarheart, one of the cats that had attacked the WindClan camp. She threw herself upon the gray tom, rage lending her all the strength she needed. But she had underestimated Cedarheart's power, and he met her readily, unbalancing her while the other ShadowClan cat charged from the side. Squirrelflight was pinned to the turf, both cats looming over her, long claws extended, teeth bared. "Brambleclaw!" she cried out instinctively.

A dark shadow leaped out of nowhere, large paws knocking aside one of the warriors while Cedarheart turned in shock. Squirrelflight heaved herself to her paws, her eyes registering that it wasn't Brambleclaw that had saved her- he was still locked in battle with Rowanclaw. It was a gray cat that had saved her, moving so fast as he tussled with Cedarheart that she couldn't make out any more than that. Ashfur? she wondered, and then had no more time to wonder as the cat that Ashfur had knocked aside sprang at her. She dropped into a crouch and let him sail over her, spinning around once he was over. She snagged his fur in her claws and threw him into the dust. He fell on his side but got up swiftly, fleeing with a startled howl.

The cat that Spiderleg fought was quick to follow, as well as the one that Squirrelflight had knocked against the tree. Brambleclaw lifted a paw and scored his claws across Rowanclaw's face, and the ShadowClan cat spat in pain and anger, his eyes searing into them all before he followed his companions. The apprentice that Whitepaw was battling went scrambling after, a warning bite from the young she-cat increasing his speed.

Now only Ashfur and Cedarheart were left. As the others watched, Ashfur bit deep into Cedarheart's hind leg. The gray cat ripped his limb free, letting out a hiss before he too left. Ashfur let out a growl of satisfaction before he turned to face the others.

And that was when Squirrelflight realized that it wasn't Ashfur at all.

**Who is it? Read the next chappie to find out! Reviews are appriciated, thanx!**


	8. Chapter 8

**This one's kinda long, but I had a lot to get in. Now you all get to find out who the cat was! I had some good guesses, and some of you were right. **

"Well, I guess my homecoming's not off to the best start," Graystripe rasped, looking towards where the ShadowClan cats had left. "I haven't even seen the whole of our territory yet, and I've already angered ShadowClan!"

"Graystripe! Graystripe, you've returned!" Spiderleg danced round the deputy like an exicted kit, and then found his dignity and sat down. "I'm a warrior now. Spiderleg."

"Congratulations!" mewed Graystripe brightly, and then turned his eyes on Squirrelflight, who was sitting beside Brambleclaw, still recovering from shock. "Have you've been made a warrior too? You're twice the size you were when I last saw you!"

Squirrelflight swallowed, an amazed happiness swelling inside her. "Yes," she managed. "I'm Squirrelflight now."

"Good for you," meowed the gray tom, and then turned to Whitepaw. "How's the training going?"

"Great!" she meowed proudly. Graystripe twitched his whiskers, and then looked at Brambleclaw. "And I suppose you're Clan leader?"

It was only for a heartbeat- less than that, even. But for that amount of time Squirrelflight thought she saw her old friend's eyes flash in a cold, hungry way, longingly. Then she blinked, and he was only Brambleclaw, and he shook his head. "Of course not. Firestar's leading us as strong as ever."

"He hasn't appointed anyone in your place," Whitepaw added.

"That's just like him," Graystripe meowed. "As if he thought I'd be offended!" He purred, and the sound was so familiar that Squirrelflight joined in. She came forward to touch noses with her father's best friend. "Don't you want to see the camp?" she asked excitedly. "And the boundries and everything? You should see Birchkit, he's almost an apprentice! And Leafpool-"

She broke off as another familiar scent reached her nose. She turned to look at Brambleclaw, who confirmed it with a nod. "Stormfur!"

Graystripe nodded. "I never would have found this place if it wasn't for him," he meowed. "After I escaped from the Twolegs and made it out of their dwellings-"

He was interrupted as a lean cat, his fur dark with mud, but his amber eyes the same as ever, pushed his way through the undergrowth towards him. Behind Stormfur came Brook, the Tribe she-cat that he had fallen in love with. And tagging along was a small golden she-cat with wide green eyes. The tip of her tail was white, as were her paws.

"Stormfur!" Squirrelflight mewed happily, dashing up to press her muzzle against her old friend's. His eyes gleamed at her. "Squirrelpaw! Great to see you!"

"It's Squirrelflight now," she corrected proudly, and he purred. "Of course. How could I think you would have stayed an apprentice this long?"

Brambleclaw came forward to brush affectionately past the former RiverClan tom. "Who's this?" he asked, looking down at the small gold cat. "Your kit?" he asked of Brook.

She shook her head. "Oh, no. Sunpaw is not from the Tribe."

"Sunpaw?" Squirrelflight looked curiously at Graystripe. "A Clan name?"

"Yes. Sunpaw was trapped with the Twolegs, like I was. She had been taken long ago, when she was still a kit. She didn't remember her name, so I gave her one." Graystripe's eyes shown with such warmth as he looked at the little cat it was as if he was looking at his own kin. "She helped me keep my spirit while I was captured, and she kept me going after I escaped."

Sunpaw lifted her chin and looked at Squirrelflight, who felt her fur bristle at the intensity of her bright green eyes. They were large and seemed to flash in a challenging way. Squirrelflight wondered if imprisonment by Twolegs had done this to her.

"Graystripe says that he'd introduce me to his Clan," she mewed, all the time looking at the gray warrior as if she expected him to go back on his promise. He only twitched his whiskers. "Of course I will," he meowed, and then looked expectantly at Brambleclaw and Squirrelflight. "Can you take me to the camp?" he meowed. His eyes gleamed with a fierce, desperate hope, and Squirrelflight knew that it was time for Firestar to see his old friend again.

&&&

Brook and Stormfur hovered just through the tunnel of thorns, Sunpaw in between them. Whitepaw and Spiderleg stood back as well, while Graystripe walked in between Squirrelflight and Brambleclaw, looking around the new camp in interest. Sootfur, who was on guard, let out an amazed gasp. "Graystripe! You've returned!"

The unfamiliar scent drew cats from their dens, and soon the elders, Ferncloud, Birchkit, and all the warriors still in the camp were gathered around, clamoring to hear their deputy's tale. Graystripe stood in the middle of them all, answering questions, sharing tongues. But his eyes were searching, and Squirrelflight knew he was looking for only one cat.

Firestar appeared from his den at the break of the Highledge. Carefully, deliberately, he bounded from stone to stone until he was on the camp floor. The Clan parted to let him through as he leaped over to his best friend, his pace suddenly so swift that his flame-colored fur was a blur.

"Graystripe," he meowed. His voice was raspy, disbelieving. "Graystripe!"

"Hello Firestar," meowed Graystripe, his eyes dancing. "I heard that you didn't replace me. Honestly, how mouse-brained can a cat get?"

Firestar let out a purr of laughter and the two old friends touched noses, exchanging words that no one else could hear, that probably wouldn't make sense. They stood side by side before the Clan, and the joy that Squirrelflight saw in her father then was enough to make her believe that everything was all right, that nothing bad would ever happen again.

Stormfur nudged Sunpaw forward, Brook tagging nervously behind him. Firestar nodded to him, and then looked at the small kitten questioningly. Graystripe threaded his way to her side. " "Sunpaw's a friend of mine," he meowed. "We were trapped with the Twolegs together, and we escaped together."

Sunpaw's chest puffed out proudly and she looked up at Graystripe. The deputy continued, and silence fell as the Clan listened to his story. "After we rescued all the cats and the Twolegs took me, they put me in their monster, inside a little nest-thing. I couldn't get out, though StarClan knows I tried. Then they took me into one of their dwellings. It was dark and the walls were lined with cages- the things they trap us in."

"That's what they did to us when they trapped us the first time!" growled Cloudtail.

Graystripe nodded, and went on, "They put me in one. Sunpaw was in the cage next to me. She had been taken a while ago, when she was just a kit. She didn't remember her name or anything, so I gave her a Clan name.

"Our cages were on the bottom row," Graystripe meowed, "So the Twolegs had to bend down to put food in. They'd open the door every time, and shut it before anyone could get out. But one day the two that always open the cages were arguing, and they weren't facing me. I saw my chance, and I dove out. I scratched one up pretty badly, and then, when he was shouting at the other one, I got Sunpaw's cage open. It isn't hard to do from the outside. We got out the door, and escaped together."

He shivered suddenly. "I'm glad we did. It was an awful place. All the cats were always yowling to get out and you should have heard the stories that they'd tell. They said that if you stayed there long enough and no Twoleg came to claim you, they'd kill you."

Squirrelflight's fur bristled in horror. Twolegs in their monsters would sometimes injure or kill stray cats walking on the Thunderpaths, but she had never heard of them capturing and killing cats in cold blood. She saw her own terror reflected in the eyes of the Clan as they remembered being driven out of the old forest, and she forced herself to listen as Graystripe mewed,

"After I got free I managed to find my way through Twolegplace back to the border of the forest. Sunpaw helped me." The kitten beamed again. "A kittypet that lived in one of the dwellings near the forest asked if I was looking for the Clan cats. She told me that they'd gone to Highstones."

"Cody!" Leafpool blurted out from somewhere in the throng. As the cats turned to look at her she scratched at the ground, embarrased, and mewed, "Cody said that she would tell Graystripe where we went if she saw him."

Graystripe nodded to her. "Well, Sunpaw and I went to Highstones, and Ravenpaw pointed us in the direction of the mountains. It was hard going there. I think we would have died, if it hadn't been for Stormfur." He shot a grateful look at his son.

"I smelled his scent," meowed Stormfur, "And Brook and I followed it. We found him and the kitten half-dead on one of the peaks."

"We offered to take him back to the Cave of Rushing Water," Brook mewed, looking nervous to be speaking in front of the whole of ThunderClan, "But he wanted to find his Clan. He would only stay one night, and then we led him as fast as we could out of the mountains and searched for signs of cats. It wasn't until we found the lake when we found scents." Her eyes widened. "I never knew there was so much water in one place. Water that never moves."

She looked so awed that it occured to Squirrelflight that she had never been out of the mountains before. All this territory must seem as frightening to her as the mountains had to the Clan cats. Stormfur pressed his nose against her shoulder. "A RiverClan patrol found us when we were searching for ThunderClan. They say the land down there is their territory now." He looked q

questioningly at Firestar, who nodded.

"It is. All the Clans have new land." He dipped his head to the gray tom. "Thank you, Stormfur, for bringing Graystripe back. And you, Brook."

The she-cat dipped her head and extended one paw, a gesture Squirrrelflight remembered from the Tribe. Firestar returned his attention back to Graystripe. "Are you all right? Did you get injured at all?"

Graystripe stretched to lick the gash on his side. "The leader of the Tribe put some herbs on this when I stayed the night in their cave," he meowed.

"You haven't been still enough for it heal properly," Sunpaw piped up.

Graystripe looked down at the young she-cat, then up at Firestar. "Sunpaw helped me survive when I was with the Twolegs," he meowed. "I might not have made it through all this without her. Can she stay with the Clan?"

Firestar tipped his head thoughtfully as he looked at Sunpaw, whose wide green eyes shone with hope as she stared steadily back at him. She didn't look afraid to be in the presence of a Clan leader, Squirrelflight thought. But perhaps after you've seen and experianced all the horrors that she had such things didn't frighten you.

Firestar waved his tail, and all the Clan turned to look at him. "We've lost Shrewpaw, Hollykit, and Larchkit during all this," he meowed, looking sympathetically at Dustpelt and Ferncloud. "Right now ThunderClan needs brave, strong cats to help us through what's left of leaf-bare. Sunpaw has survived a great deal, and she has helped Graystripe find his way back to us. Now I ask her to join ThunderClan."

Sunpaw purred quietly, and Squirrelflight realized that for the first time she looked genuinely happy.

Brook and Stormfur were staying the night, saying that it would be too hard to travel through the night towards the mountains again, having been on their paws all day anyway. Squirrelflight was glad to have a chance to speak to the gray warrior again, for his leaving had hurt her bitterly.

"How's Tribe life treating you?" she asked as they ate fresh-kill at sundown.

"It's been fine," he meowed. "Crag's a good friend; he's taught me a lot. And Stoneteller says that the Tribe of Endless Hunting has accepted me. Brook's great too."

His amber eyes glowed as he looked at the she-cat, who was looking in fascination at the stone cliffs that formed the camp. Squirrelflight felt her heart prick at that warm look. "You really love her, don't you?"

"I do," he answered softly, a trace of embarrasement in his voice. "But you know about it, don't you? You have that. With Brambleclaw."

"No I don't," Squirrelflight replied sadly, shaking her head. "Not anymore."

Stormfur looked at her in puzzlement. "Why not? You two have your quarrels, but things always work out."

"Not this time," Squirrelflight meowed. "I don't trust him enough, Stormfur. I'll admit it. I'm afraid of what he has with Hawkfrost. Afraid that it's more important to him than anything else. Than the Clan. Than me."

Stormfur's tail whipped out, flicking her ear. His eyes were on Brook, but his voice was in another world altogether. "Squirrelflight, if I've learned anything from all I've been through, it's that you can't chance love. If you love Brambleclaw- and I know you do- don't bother yourself questioning it. You say you don't trust him, but you do."

"But I don't," Squirrelflight argued. Stormfur narrowed his eyes at her, but there was no anger there. "Not with your mind, maybe. But with your heart."

**That's right, HE'S BACK. Graystripe's back! You can all commence cheering now, jk. Anyway, hope you liked the chappie, and review please!****BTW- **

**Next chappie something happens between Crowfeather and Leafpool!**


	9. Chapter 9

**Since it's Friday and all (woot!) I had time to bring up the next chapter already. I had the best time writing this one, especially the end, which I've had the idea for ever since I first started writing this fic. Thanks to all reviewers, and I hope you like this chappie!**

Firestar called a Clan meeting the next dawn. Leafpool stumbled out of her den, startled from the early call, and joined the other cats to listen to her father.

"Cats of ThunderClan," he called from the Highledge, "I cannot say how happy I am to have Graystripe with us once more. But Squirrelflight, Brambleclaw, and Spiderleg's patrol brings other news. ShadowClan has been hunting in our territory. We successfully drove them off today, but that doesn't mean they won't return."

Yowls of anger rose from the cats, and Firestar stopped to acknowledge them before speaking again. "Our warriors have done well today, and I wish to honor one apprentice for that. Whitepaw, come forward please."

The she-cat looked astonished, and it was only after a prod from Sorreltail that she leaped up, scrambling beneath the Highledge to meet Firestar as he leaped down.

"Whitepaw," meowed Firestar, "Brambleclaw tells me that you fought well against ShadowClan today, and I wish to grant you your warrior name." He lifted his head up to the twilight sky, to the first gleaming star that shone like a drop of dew against the dusky sky. "I, Firestar, leader of ThunderClan, call upon my warrior anscestors to look down upon this apprentice. She has trained hard to learn the ways of your noble code, and I commend her to you as a warrior in her turn."

He looked down at Whitepaw. "Whitepaw, do you promise to uphold the warrior code above all else, to protect and defend this Clan, even at the cost of your life?"

Whitepaw's green eyes gleamed as she replied, "Yes, I do."

"Then, by the powers of StarClan, I grant you your warrior name," announced Firestar. "Whitepaw, from this moment onward you shall be known as Whitewhisker. StarClan honors your bravery and your loyalty, and we welcome you as a full warrior of ThunderClan."

He rested his muzzled on her head, and, after giving his shoulder the traditional lick, she bounded over to join Spiderleg and the other warriors. Brightheart and Cloudtail, her parents, covered her with proud licks, and her mentor Brackenfur looked just as proud as she did herself. Firestar let the voices call her new warrior name for a couple of heartbeats, and then yowled for silence once more.

"Brook and Stormfur stayed the night with us," he meowed, "But it is time for them to return to the Tribe. The thanks of ThunderClan go with them, for they have brought our deputy back."

Calls of thanks and agreement rose from the cats, and the meeting began to break up. Only Brambleclaw, Squirrelflight, Firestar, and Graystripe remained, Sunpaw at his side. Leafpool lagged behind, watching them, not wanting to interfere.

Firestar dipped his head to his best friend's son. "Good-bye," he meowed. "Thank you for all you did."

"I would do anything for my father," Stormfur replied, "And the Clans."

Brambleclaw touched noses with the gray tom. "Good luck in the mountains," he meowed. "It was good to see you again."

"You too," Stormfur mewed. "I'm glad I got to see the Clans' new home."

Leafpool watched her sister press her muzzle against Stormfur's, mewing a good-bye. "Don't go falling off any mountains!"

Stormfur's whiskers twitched. "Don't worry. Brook'll make sure I'm safe."

The Tribe she-cat nodded. "Stoneteller says that the Tribe of Rushing Water will never forget the our friends in the Clans," she meowed.

Glancing at each other, the other three cats left, leaving Graystripe alone to say good-bye to his son. The ThunderClan deputy touched his nose to Stormfur's ear. "Are you sure you don't want to stay with the Clans?"

The prey-hunter shook his head slowly. "I'm sorry. But the mountains are where I belong now. It's where Feathertail's spirit is, where she died. I don't want to leave her."

"You have always been loyal to her," Graystripe commented quietly. "And I know you did all you could to save her. I don't blame you, Stormfur."

Stormfur looked relieved, and he pushed his nose into Graystripe's thick fur for a few heartbeats. He suddenly looked very much like a young kit. "Good-bye, Father," he whispered.

Graystripe's eyes were full of sadness as he licked his son's head. He didn't say anything for a few heartbeats, and then he murmured, "I understand."

Brook, who had been hovering around a foxlength or so away from them, took a nervous step foward. "It was good to meet the father of Stormfur," she mewed.

Graystripe touched noses with her. "Thanks for all your help."

Stormfur stood back beside Brook, casting a last, long look around the camp. "Watch out for Sunpaw."

Graystripe nodded, for the first time a glimmer of spirit shining through his sorrow. Leafpool wondered how much he had relied on the young cat during their time spent together. The ThunderClan deputy stood watching, motionless, as Stormfur and Brook made their way through the thorns. The two mud-slicked cats padded towards the horizon, on their way back to their home in the mountains, and it was not long before they disappeared altogether.

Still Graystripe stood watching. Cold leaf-bare winds blew around his fur, but he didn't seem to feel them. After a while Firestar appeared, and he sat down next to his friend, brushing his flame-colored pelt against his deputy's dark gray one. They stood next to each other for a long time, not saying anything. Perhaps, after being friends for so long, they did not need to.

&&&

Leafpool circled in her nest as the sun went down. Sleep was harder to reach now, though the day itself had been relaxing. Whitewhisker held her vigil at the top of the cliffs. Graystripe was falling back into his old place in the Clan. And something in Squirrelflight had gone right. She could feel it. And Firestar, Firestar was happier than she had ever seen him, since before that long-ago patrol when they had seen the first monster, ripping through the forest.

_Everything is working out for everyone else, _Leafpool thought, thinking wistfully of Crowfeather. _But why can't it go right for me?_

When she finally did reach the lands of dreaming, she was hunting. The area she was in was unfamiliar, and the sun was setting, dying the sky dusky and dark, a glimmer of starshine glowing through. The moon was visible, but it was only a pale imprint high in the air.

Prey was hard to find, but when Leafpool crept under a peat bush she saw a crow pecking on the ground in front of her. She crouched, her eyes narrow. Crows were among the hardest of birds to catch, as they were cunning like foxes, but this one seemed stupid, to be standing on the ground, unaware of her presence. It held enough meat to fill one of the elders' bellies.

She unsheathed her claws and padded forward a few more steps, but then paused. An unexpected but somehow familiar scent reached her glands, and she lifted her head to sniff again. As she did, a silver blur leaped out of the undergrowth opposite her, pinning the crow to the ground.

Leafpool realized that the stranger did not have ThunderClan scent, and she drew breath to cry a warning. But before she could the cat looked up, the bird in its jaws, and Leafpool recognized her with a jolt. _Feathertail._

"I'm dreaming," she whispered.

"You are, Leafpool," Feathertail murmured in her soft voice, taking a step towards her. She still held the crow, but lightly, as to not harm it, and she spoke around the feathers. As Leafpool looked on, she gently set it on the ground, holding its wings with her paws.

"Feathertail, I'm so sorry!" Leafpool mewed, dipping her head. "About Crowfeather. I know you loved him, and so you should. I won't say anything to him, I promise. He won't love another until he sees you in StarClan."

"Leafpool," Feathertail mewed, lifting her head from the crow. Her blue eyes sparkled in the dusky twilight. As the medicine cat watched, she retracted her claws. The crow sprang free and with a hoarse claw lofted into the air, circling around them.

"How I wish that I caught that bird," Feathertail meowed, following it with her eyes. "But I know that I cannot. I can hold it prisoner against its will, when I know that, in its secret heart, it yearns to be free?"

Leafpool realized that she wasn't talking about the bird. She was speaking of a cat, and, as she watched the blue-black crow wing its way through the sky, she knew which cat.

"Had I lived," Feathertail mewed, "Crowfeather and I would have perhaps remained together. But I did not. I fell to save him, Leafpool. Died to give him more time to live. For my tale was finished in the land of the Tribe. But Crowfeather's was just beginning."

Leafpool wasn't sure she understood, and she turned to watch the crow again. It flapped to the base of a tree nearby and pushed its black beak into the dirt. When it lifted its head again, it clutched something there. Not a grub, but a leaf. A brown leaf, crossed with darker muddied markings, like tabby fur. Leafpool gasped, and whirled around to look at Feathertail, but the silver she-cat was beginning to fade. Leafpool pricked her ears to hear the voice one last time.

"I give my permission, Leafpool, and I will look down on you both. All I wish is for Crowfeather...and you, to be happy. That is all I ever wanted, you know. For everyone to be happy."

**What'll happen next? I'll get the next chapter out soon, I promise!**

**PS- I'm actually allergic to cats!**


	10. Chapter 10

**Here's the new chappie! Glad that you're all so happy to have Graystripe back! This one is Leafpool's POV (yeah, I'm officially not doing them in any order). Hope you like it, though!**

When Leafpool awoke, it was not yet dawn. She gazed around, her dream flooding back to her, and she had the overwhelming urge to speak with Crowfeather. She got to her paws and looked around, but she couldn't see or hear any other cat stirring. She took a breath and began to head for the camp entrance.

"A bit early for an outing, isn't it?"

The soft mew caught her off guard, and she spun round, her fur bristling. She caught sight of a pair of amber eyes watching her from the shadows near the warriors' den.

"Sorreltail!" she meowed. "What are you doing up so early?"

"Keeping watch," the tortoiseshell cat answered, padding up to her. "What about you?"

"Oh, I'm...er...collecting some herbs." Leafpool mewed the first thing that came to her head. "Cinderpelt says that we're out of coltsfoot and catnip, so I thought I'd go find some."

"At night?" she asked, narrowing his eyes. "A bit hard to see herbs without any light, isn't it?"

"Um...I ususally find them by scent, anyway," Leafpool meowed, trying to appear careless. "Besides, I wanted to get them before Cinderpelt wakes up. She wanted to make a poultice for Goldenflower's throat with the catnip, and I've never seen it made before. She said she'd show me how."

Sorreltail pawed at the ground. "That's a lie, Leafpool, and you know it. Why won't you tell me where you're really going?"

"You wouldn't believe me even if I did," Leafpool answered, shrinking away from the suspicion laced through her friend's voice.

"What makes you say that?" Sorreltail challenged. "You won't know unless you tell me. Besides, what could be so bad that..." She stopped suddenly, and her eyes widened. "It's about what you said, isn't it, that day on patrol? About having a cat to love. I thought it was someone in ThunderClan- I thought it might have even been Brackenfur, from the way you were acting- but it's not, is it? It's someone from another Clan!"

Leafpool's throat tightened, and she knew that she couldn't keep it from Sorreltail anymore. Cursing herself for letting her tongue loosen so much on that patrol, she admitted, "Yes, it is."

"And you're going to meet him! But how can you? And what Clan is he from? Do I know him?"

She sounded faintly excited, as if Leafpool had a normal interest, and not one forbidden by StarClan. The tabby cat looked at her friend, silently thanking her for not mentioning it, for not lecturing her and telling her she was wrong. "You know him, Sorreltail. And he's from...WindClan."

"WindClan? Better than ShadowClan, I suppose. But still, how can you meet him? What'll happen if someone...what'll happen if _Firestar _finds out?"

"I don't know, Sorreltail. Besides, I haven't done anything wrong yet, besides speak to him." _And tell him that I loved him, _she added silently.

"So who is it? Come on, you can't tell me this much and then not tell me his name."

Leafpool stared at her. "You can't tell anyone."

"Of course not! Leafpool, I'd never do that. I'm your friend. I won't betray you."

Leafpool stared at her to make sure that she could believe her, and then spoke. "It's...it's Crowfeather."

"_Crowfeather_! That nettle-tongued, fox-hearted warrior! One of the traveling cats! But weren't he and Feathertail..."

She had to break off, for Leafpool was already forcing her way through the thorns, on her way to see her forbidden love.

&&&

Leafpool's heart pounded as she made her way through the territory, though she didn't feel any remorse for telling Sorreltail. No, she was more worried about what was to come. She hoped that it wouldn't be too difficult to find Crowfeather. But it was late at night. What if he was still asleep in his den? Would she have to barge straight into the WindClan camp to speak with him?

_That would be mouse-brained! _she told herself, and almost stopped and turned around right then. But the gleam of Silverpelt in the sky kept her going, as well as the voices that spoke from inside her heart.

_He wanted a message, _she thought, _And Feathertail gave me a message. But will he believe me? Will mentioning Feathertail only bring it all back?_

She didn't know, but her belly twisted at the possibilites. She already felt as if she had eaten a piece of prey that was still alive, and there it was, crawling around inside of her. Somehow, it wasn't an unpleasant feeling. She neared the border with WindClan, and stared across it longingly, seeing the impossibility of crossing it. What would the WindClan patrols do if they caught her? And what would she say if she did find Crowfeather?

"Leafpool!"

She jumped about a tail-length in the air before she realized that the voice hadn't come from the ThunderClan side, but from WindClan. She stared across the stream that formed the border, wondering, waiting for whoever had spoke to appear. She knew it was too late to run.

Crowfeather was racing all-out across his territory, and his eyes blazed like tiny pools of clear water. His tail was high, and his ears were pricked. His gray-blackfur was swirled with starlight, so that he looked like part of StarClanalready.Leafpool stood still as he neared her, and watched as he catapaulted himself clear across the stream, onto the ThunderClan side.

"Crowfeather," she began, wanting to tell him, but he silenced her by pressing his muzzle against hers. Then he stood back, and his tail stretched out, touching her under her chin. Gently he pressed upward, guiding her to lift her head towards the sky until she looked where he did, at the moon that shone so proudly at them from its home among the stars.Crowfeather stared up at it,and his gaze was so warm that Leafpool thought she might melt away right there. Then he spoke:

"I had a dream."

**They're together! But will it last?**

**Reviews are appriciated!**


	11. Chapter 11

**Whoa, past 70 reviews? Wow, thanx! Anyway, new chappie! Hope you like it, as usual.**

"Feathertail came to me," Crowfeather went on, his eyes still in the stars. "She told me that I can't grieve for her, not when we won't be together for so long. She told me that she understands how I feel. And she told me...told me that you felt the same." He looked at her questioningly, and Leafpool swallowed, nodding. "I do," she whispered. "She came to me too."

"I know," mewed Crowfeather. "Why else would you be padding along the border in the middle of the night?"

Leafpool's whiskers twitched in a mixture of embarrassment and amusement, and her eyes met a shimmering star of Silverpelt. As her eyes locked with it, she broke away from the WindClan cat, suddenly horrified. "I can't do this, Crowfeather. I'm a medicine cat! I can't break the code that I swore to! How can I?"

He stared at her with eyes brimming with sorrow. "I know," he meowed. "I've told myself that. But why did StarClan send me dreams about you, then? And why does Feathertail want us together?"

Leafpool opened her mouth to answer, but a frightening hiss broke off her words. "Ah, this is sweet. But not as sweet as battle."

She and Crowfeather scrambled to their paws to see a thin, ragged group of cats emerging out of the darkness of the undergrowth. Their fur was torn, their eyes were cold, and they reeked of carrion and battle. "Look at this, Ginger!" snarled one. "These cats think they can live here?"

"Why would we want to share?" answered the one at their head, a large she-cat with dark ginger fur. It was marred with black around her head and over one eye. Leafpool backed up, afraid, while Crowfeather sprang ahead of her, his fur bristling. "This is Clan territory, crowfood! Why don't you all crawl back into the fox den that you came out of?"

Ginger stared at him, her eyes gleaming. "A brave one, that," she meowed. "Pity we have to kill you, isn't it?"

There was no signal, no warning, but suddenly the cats were surging at them, overpowering the two forest cats by sheer numbers. Leafpool registered that these must have been the scents that she and Sorreltail had smelled on patrol before she was slammed by two of them. For a moment she was pressed to the ground. But fire flared inside her and she forced herself up, her claws scratching at anything she could reach, her teeth bared.

A mangy tom, with a face twisted by the snarl he wore, threw himself at her. Leafpool ducked and let him go flying over her, but then she was flattened by another one. She was pressed to the ground, unable to move as claws tore her fur again and again.

Then the weight was off her and she was free, bleeding and panting but still alive. She turned to see Crowfeather, fighting three cats at once, only visible in a whirlwind of gray-black fur. Leafpool turned and bowled another of the rouges over, fighting for all she was worth, though she knew this was a battle that she could never hope to win.

A fierce sound met her ears. The cauterwaul rang through the air for a few heartbeats and then Graystripe appeared, Sandstorm, Rainwhisker, Squirrelflight and Sunpaw in tow. The ThunderClan warriors hurled themselves into battle with cries of defense, and within moments it was the rouges that were outnumbered. Leafpool fought with her Clanmates and Crowfeather, clawing the rouges and forcing them into retreat.

They turned and fled without warning, but the ginger-and-black one was the last to flee. She brushed past Leafpool as she raced past, and she turned around, her pale yellow eyes narrowed. "Think you've frightened us?" she whispered. "You haven't."

Then she was gone, and the ThunderClan cats stood, panting and examining wounds, waiting for the shock to wear off. Leafpool saw Crowfeather, on his paws but unsteady. He shared a long look with her before Graystripe bounded over to him.

"What are you doing here?" he wondered. His voice was curious, not challenging, and Crowfeather stared at him for a moment as he registered who he was.

"I was...patrolling the border," he meowed finally, looking right into the deputy's eyes as he lied, "when I heard Leafpool's yowl. I came to help her against the rouges."

"And what were you doing here in the first place?" Sandstorm demanded, turning her green eyes on her daughter.

"Looking for herbs." Leafpool remembered her reply from earlier. "I told Sorreltail where I was going before I left. The rouges attacked before I knew they were even here. They would have killed me if it wasn't for Crowfeather."

She knew that there was truth in that, and Graystripe turned to look at the WindClan cat. "In that case, thank you," he meowed, dipping his head shortly. "But it's probably best that you return to your own Clan. You should warn them about the rouges and-" humor entered his eyes for a heartbeat- "tell them that ThunderClan's deputy has returned."

"I will, thanks, Graystripe," Crowfeather meowed, and he too dipped his head before bounding back over the border, ignoring his injuries. The sun was rising as he leaped away, and Leafpool looked after him. She had to struggle hard to conceal the longing in her eyes.

&&&

Squirrelflight was just padding out of the warriors' den as the patrol returned, shaking sleep from her eyes. She watched in astonishment as the battered cats made their way into their camp. Graystripe and Sandstorm immidiately began to make their way over to the Highledge. The rest of the patrol began to lay down and lick their wounds. Squirrelflight started towards her sister to find out what had happened, but Sorreltail had already reached her, and the two were speaking softly, their heads together. She found herself beside Brambleclaw instead. He looked at her, and Squirrelflight's tail twitched as she remembered what Stormfur had said.

"So what happened?" she asked in the end.

Brambleclaw flopped down beside her. He looked as if he was waiting for her to storm away, but she didn't. "Rouges," he meowed after a moment. "They were attacking Leafpool and Crowfeather along the WindClan border. We chased them out, though."

Squirrelflight's eyes widened. "Was anyone badly injured?"

"No, they fled before it could get too ugly," Brambleclaw meowed. "But Sunpaw was a fighter, for sure. I was surprised. Most apprentices her age wouldn't have done so well."

"She's had to fend for herself since she was a kit," Squirrelflight pointed out. "It probably wasn't a bad way to learn how to sharpen your claws."

Brambleclaw nodded, and he set his head wearily on his front paws. "It was good for Leafpool that Crowfeather was there," he commented. "If they had attacked her alone, she would have been torn to shreds."

"Leafpool was a fool to go where she'd already smelled rouges," Squirrelflight growled. "What was she doing there, anyway?"

"Collecting herbs," Brambleclaw replied. "That's what she told Sandstorm."

Squirrelflight shook her head. "The day hasn't even started yet, and already I want to go back to sleep!"

Brambleclaw purred with laughter and then rolled over onto his back, feigning exhaustion. "But you haven't been fighting rouges since the sun rose!"

Squirrelflight narrowed her eyes with amusement. _Like it used to be, _she thought. _When we would tease each other like this. Whatever happened to that? _

She flicked her tail over him. He scrambled back onto his belly, wincing with pain as he did so. Squirrelflight saw the gaping wound on the back of his neck, and, without thinking, bent over and began to lick it clean. She felt Brambleclaw tense, and then relax. He let out a bit of a purr, and for a while neither of them spoke. Then he meowed, "Do you trust me, then?"

Squirrelflight looked at him. She thought of Hawkfrost, and Tigerstar, and what her father had said. Then she remembered her days as an apprentice, and the journey to the sun-drown-place. How much had she relied on Brambleclaw then?

She twitched her whiskers at him. "Brambleclaw," she meowed, "I'd trust you with my life."

Brambleclaw touched his nose to her ear. "Good," he meowed. "Because I'd give my life for you."

Neither of them said anything beyond that, and neither of them noticed Leafpool, sitting at the mouth of the medicine cats' den. She was watching them, mixed emotions swirling in her amber eyes. There was happiness for her sister there. But greater than that spark of joy was a deep, cold void of sorrow, a sorrow so great that she wondered if she could ever conquer it.

**They're not totally back together, but they're getting there! YAY! And poor Leafpool...**


	12. Chapter 12

**New chappie, people! This one's from Brambleclaw's POV. Thanx for all the reviews, guys!**

Brambleclaw went to sleep the night of the rouge attacks in better spirits than he had been in a long time. Squirrelflight was speaking to him! The very thought made him want to leap around for joy.

She curled up in the nest beside him that she had abandoned a long while ago, in favor of one across the den next to Ashfur. Brambleclaw saw the gray warrior looking at him with badly masked jealousy, but he didn't care. He could deal with Ashfur, as long as he had Squirrelflight.

The ginger warrior wrapped herself up in a tight ball, her fur fluffed up against the winds. "'Night, Brambleclaw," she mewed.

"'Night." He watched through half-closed eyes until her breathing stilled to a soft rhythm, showing she was asleep. Only then he allowed himself to drop off too.

Brambleclaw found himself in an unfamiliar place. He was following a scent, a scent he did not recognize but felt attatched to. His nose was almost to the ground, his ears were pricked, and his fur quivered as he went. The smell was so familiar, and he felt infuriated that he could not place it.

Then he came to a dip in the ground, a shallow basin in the flat territory he had been walking through. Brambleclaw padded down, but once he cleared the rise his paws stopped. He thought his heart did, too.

Tigerstar sat in the middle of the valley, just as he had in one of Brambleclaw's previous dreams, in the ThunderClan camp. He looked at Brambleclaw, and then moved to the side, revealing Hawkfrost, who held the same proud stance as his father.

"Greetings, my son," meowed Tigerstar. "It is good to see you again."

Brambleclaw said nothing. He didn't really know _what _to say. He wasn't glad to see Tigerstar, but neither did he want to leave. The last dream he had had like this had left him yearning for it to have gone on, and that yearning opened again at the sight of his kin. Hesitantly, he came closer. "Why do you keep coming to me?" he asked of Tigerstar. "You're dead!"

"Bluestar is dead," his father answered, "And yet she came to you, many moons ago. What she said to you resulted in the survival of your Clan. How can you scorn me for coming as well?"

"You're...you're evil," whispered Brambleclaw. "You tried to kill us all." He turned to Hawkfrost, looking into his brother's blue eyes. "He did, Hawkfrost. You won't remember, but he did." Somehow this seemed important.

"What have I done wrong?" Tigerstar meowed, his amber eyes holding Brambleclaw where he was. "I tried to bring the forest together. I was was wrong, I admit, to recruit BloodClan. I paid dearly for it, too- for I paid with not one, but nine of my lives."

Brambleclaw's fur bristled as he remmebered that awful day. But he remembered other things, too, at the same time. "You're lying," he muttered. "You wanted to destroy the Clans. You were going to murder anyone that got in your way."

"I fought to defend my Clan," Tigerstar insisted. "Fought to get you to see that my way was right. Tallstar and Firestar were fools."

"They were noble leaders." Hawkfrost spoke for the first time, and he looked unsure about contradicting his father. "Firestar still is."

"Tallstar was old even then." Tigerstar's head swiveled to look at his other son. "And too obsessed with the old ways. And as for Firestar..." he paused for a moment. "He never trusted me, not since his days as an apprentice. He thought me evil, but he never once asked me for the truth behind all I had done."

"He's my leader," Brambleclaw protested. "My mentor."

"He leads you only because I was driven off for him to replace me as deputy," Tigerstar retorted "And he mentored you, why? To keep an eye on you. Because you are are my son."

His words chilled Brambleclaw to the bone, not because of what they suggested, but because they made sense. Brambleclaw stared at him, and he was hit by a series of flashbacks. Of a time before the journey to the sun-drown-place, before Squirrelflight. A time where he had been a kit, and then a young apprentice. The fire at the ThunderClan camp, that Firestar had saved him from. Firestar's days as deputy- but he had been Fireheart then. Bluestar's fraying leadership, and the attack by the dog pack. The day when Firestar had told him what Tigerstar had done.

_He trusted me, _thought Brambleclaw. _He saved my life._

"He trusts you," Tigerstar mewed, as if he could read Brambleclaw's thoughts. "But does he really? Enough to be his deputy?"

Brambleclaw's spine stiffened. _How does he know? _he thought desperately. _Everything I'm afraid of, everything I've thought. He knows it! _"Firestar...Firestar didn't name a new deputy because of Graystripe," he meowed.

"Or was it because he was afraid of the best cat for the job?" Tigerstar whispered, his gaze intensifying. "Brambleclaw, you are a fine warrior, and more than that, you have saved your Clan. Any warrior worth a whisker would have put you as their deputy. But Firestar didn't."

Brambleclaw said nothing, and Hawkfrost was staring at his father, his gaze unreadable. Brambleclaw realized that Graystripe's returm must be news to him, but he didn't say anything about it. Tigerstar got to his paws and his words were directed at them both. "When I look at you, I see myself. I see fine warriors, warriors that know the warrior code as well as their own names. Warriors that would defend their Clans with their lives."

Hawkfrost swelled at his praise, and Brambleclaw felt strangely warm too. As if it was a respected warrior giving him praise, not the biggest traitor the forest had ever born. Tigerstar padded towards him, and he rested his muzzle briefly on Brambleclaw's head. Then he did the same to Hawkfrost. "Do not hide from who you truly are," he advised softly, quietly. "Embrace it."

He turned and walked away, and within a heartbeat he was gone. Brambleclaw turned to look at his half-brother, wondering what Hawkfrost would say. The RiverClan cat lifted his head to the dark sky, and he looked just as noble as he had the night of Mudclaw's death. "He's right, Brambleclaw," murmured the tabby tom. "We can't hide from who we are. And we are Tigerstar's sons."

But Brambleclaw stuck his claws into the ground. He looked up at the sky, and for the first time that night he saw Silverpelt, and the cats of StarClan. _He may be my father, _he thought, _and I may be like him. But he is dead, and he can't tell me what to do. Not anymore._

"Do you believe him, Hawkfrost?" he asked. "Believe what he tells you?"

Hawkfrost kneaded at the turf, looking uncertain. "I don't know," he admitted. "I never saw BloodClan, or the joining of TigerClan. Was it awful?"

Brambleclaw remembered being crouched on the ground, listening to Firestar on the Highrock, telling the Clan of how Tigerstar had ordered Blackstar- Blackfoot then- to murder the RiverClan deputy Stonefur. He remembered sitting with Tawnypelt as apprentices, watching Feathertail and Stormfur, also apprentices, curl up, exhausted and beaten in the corner of the den. They had been imprisoned by Tigerstar for being half-Clan.

Even more vividly he remembered the stare of his father's eyes, when he had asked him to join him and Tawnypelt, telling him that she had made the right choice, that TigerClan was the place for him. His tongue quivered in his mouth as he remembered the response he had given, remembered the proud stare of Firestar's eyes and the angry one in Tigerstar's.

"Join you?" he had meowed. "After all you've done? I'd rather die!"

He replayed all his memories to Hawkfrost, who listened with pricked ears and wide eyes. The dream was fading, the ground shifting, as Brambleclaw spoke his last words to his half-brother. "He called me a fool for not joining him," he meowed. "But one of us didn't leave Fourtrees alive that day. And it wasn't me."

**Next chapter will be up soon! (It's from Leafpool's POV, btw)**


	13. Chapter 13

**Chappie #13 is up, woot! We're back at Leafpool's POV. Also, my email-sender-thing isn't working, so I can't get private messages through my username here right now. I can still get reviews though (hint hint hint). Anyway, if you wanna contact me, do it directly to my email address (in my profile). Thanx!**

Leafpool scraped at the pile of cobwebs. Her limbs seemed heavier, her hopes lower lately. It didn't make sense to her. Feathertail had given her approval of her and Crowfeather. Half the trouble between them was gone. So why did she feel ten times worse?

_Because it's my fault now, _she thought bitterly. _My fault that we're not together. _

_I'm a medicine cat! _Some part of her answered._ I can't break the codes!  
_

_Why does it matter? Feathertail wouldn't have come to me if StarClan didn't approve!_

But she didn't know if that was true. Just because Feathertail approved didn't mean that it was right. Besides, they came from different Clans. On top of being a medicine cat, Leafpool could be killed for treason if she pursued Crowfeather. And the same could happen to him.

But that look in his eyes, the night on the border...what had he been about to tell her, before the rouges had attacked? He had agreed with her when she had said that she couldn't do anything. But would he agree, too, if she said she was for it?

On the bright side, the rouges had not been scented in their territory again, though a patrol had tracked them across the WindClan border.

"Well, that means they're WindClan's problem now," Cloudtail pointed out, his tail curling up in satisfaction.

Firestar shot him a disapproving look, and Sandstorm twitched her whiskers in agreement with her mate. "That's just what Onestar needs, at the beginning of his leadership," she commented sourly, looking uncharicteristically sympathetic for the WindClan cats. "Trouble with rouges."

ShadowClan, too, had kept out of ThunderClan land. Part of that was probably because of the obsessive patrols around that area. The ShadowClan scent marks in ThunderClan territory had been covered up with their own scent, and the borders themselves were reinforced. Firestar was satisfied, as was most of the Clan. Squirrelflight too. And Brambleclaw. Her sister had made up with her old friend. Leafpool was happy for them, and she kept a careful watch on the fragile but growing connection in between them, making sure that Squirrelflight didn't let it break again. But seeing them together drove cold claws into her heart. The thoughts and feelings Squirrelflight had for Brambleclaw hit Leafpool as if they were her own, only for her, they were for a different cat. Smaller than Brambleclaw, leaner, with blue eyes and a short dark, dark pelt...

The days trundled on in this manner, as the moon wore down in the sky. Finally came the day when it would rise perfectly in half when the night came, and it was time for Leafpool and Cinderpelt to visit StarClan at the Moonpool.

They met the other medicine cats at dawn at the edge of ThunderClan territory. It was a new sensation for Leafpool and Cinderpelt to have the sacred place on the edge of their own territory, seperated only by wild lands and not another Clan's territory. In turn, it was new for Barkface to have to travel through ThunderClan to get to them, and he arrived late, Icepaw tagging along behind. The young apprentice's eyes were wide and dancing with excitement.

"Will I see StarClan?" he kept asking, his tail waving in the air. "Will they speak to me? Will there be a ceremony, like with other apprentices?"

Mothwing rolled her eyes, but Leafpool shared his excitement. "Yes, there will," she told him. "It will be wonderful, I promise you."

As they trekked, Mothwing fell into step beside her at the back of the group. The golden tabby was watching Icepaw. "He's foolish," she snorted, and Leafpool was reminded forcibly of her cold, disdainful mother, Sasha.

"Don't you remember being that excited?" Leafpool asked. She narrowed her eyes teasingly. "I remember your first trip to the Moonstone. You weren't in the best shape either. 'Leafpaw, Leafpaw, test me on herbs!'"

Mothwing took a good-natured swipe at her. "Well, I didn't know what to expect," she admitted. "But now I do. There's nothing to fear."

Leafpool tipped her head to one side. She felt her paw pads prickle as she recalled Mothwing's terrible secret- she did not believe in StarClan, nor in the signs and dreams that they sent medicine cats and Clan leaders. Leafpool had given up trying to convince her otherwise, though it troubled her greatly that her friend was a medicine cat-part of whom's job it was to interpret signs from their warrior anscestors- and still didn't believe. "Do you get dreams?" she asked in an undertone, her gaze flickering to the other medicine cats ahead. "At the Moonpool, I mean."

Mothwing twitched her ears. "Yes," she admitted. "But they don't make much sense. They're like flashes, flashes of things that could have happened. Or that will happen. Or may never happen. See, you can't even tell! How helpful can they be?"

"So you never speak to the cats of StarClan?" Leafpool wondered. "You've never seen them?"

Mothwing's eyes, huge and troubled, were fixated on the ground as she shook her head in dessent. Leafpool leaped over a stone on the ground, and she planned her next question carefully. "Mothwing," she asked slowly, "Do you ever...have you ever...thought that they might be asking too much of us?"

"Who?" Mothwing asked.

"StarClan."

"Oh, don't start that again, Leafpool. I've told you, I don't-"

"No, that's not what I mean," Leafpool interrupted. "I mean, do you ever think that there are too many _rules _for medicine cats? We have our own dens, our own codes, we can't have kits...or...or mates..."

She broke off and looked at Mothwing, waiting for an answer. The RiverClan cat had slowed down a bit. "I never really thought about it," she remarked. "There's so much to learn as a medicine cat- more than there was as a warrior. I always thought that I had too much going on for something like a mate." She turned to look at Leafpool. "Or do you feel differently?"

"No, no," Leafpool mewed hastily. "I just was thinking about it."

Mothwing shrugged and walked ahead, but Leafpool stayed where she was for a bit, until Barkface called back and threatened to leave her here for the foxes to track. The she sprang ahead to her companions. They hadn't reached the Moonpool yet, but Leafpool's mind was already in the stars of Silverpelt.

&&&

Leafpool bent her head and lapped up a couple of drops from the Moonpool. Icepaw's acceptance ceremony rang through her head. The white apprentice had already taken his drink from the Moonpool and was crouched in a trance at the edge of the clearing. The other medicine cats were now taking their drinks as well, waiting for StarClan to show them what they must.

The water was cold and crisp, but it burned through Leafpool as if it were fire. Her eyes closed and she fell back, silver fuzz invading her senses until she could no longer see anything around her. _Please StarClan, _she thought woozily. _Tell me what to do._

Her eyes snapped back open, and she got to her paws. She was on the island. The Great Oak stood tall and proud before her, its empty branches standing against the wind that blew while the bushes and smaller saplings behind it rattled violently. Leafpool kept her eyes on it, ignoring even the lake that glowed silver in the reflected light of the moon.

A cat stepped from the branches, young and beautiful. Spottedleaf's gaze was warm as she made her way over to Leafpool, her amber eyes glowing contrastingly golden brown against the uniform silver and black around her. Leafpool waited for her, tingling in anticipation. She meant to be calm, but the look in the other's gaze made her want to pour all her troubles out.

"How can he love me, Spottedleaf?" Leafpool blurted out. "And how can I love _him_?"

The stare of the former medicine cat was soft and warm, perhaps even reminiscent. "Love chooses the hearts that it will walk in," she mewed softly. "As much as many say it is so, you cannot control it."  
"But I barely know Crowfeather!" Leafpool protested. "And I'm a medicine cat! _And _he's from WindClan! I couldn't have chosen worse if I tried!"

Spottedleaf let out a _mrrow _of laughter. "You do not choose who you love, Leafpool, and neither does StarClan. But we watch what lies ahead and what lies in your heart, and, when we can, we protect it."

Leafpool sighed deeply, wrapping her tail around herself. "What do I do?" she pleaded.

Spottedleaf looked away. "There is another that could explain this, better than I can," she mewed, gesturing at the Great Oak. Another cat was stirring there. This one was gray, with a broad face, and round orange eyes. There was an impertinant tilt to her head that made Leafpool feel uncertain, but there was something familiar about the cat. Finally she put it together.

"Yellowfang!" she whispered, almost in awe. How often had Cinderpelt told her tales of this medicine cat? And how many times had she said things like: "Yellowfang told me" or "You're lucky Yellowfang's not here. If she saw you doing that, you'd be missing your ears right now!"

But why was she here? Yellowfang had gone from ShadowClan to ThunderClan, but that did not put her in Leafpool's position. But there was empathy radiating from her as she took a place on Leafpool's other side, and the three medicine cats began to walk together.

"I know how you feel, Leafpool," Yellowfang meowed. "And not just from watching you. I have felt your pain myself."

"How?" Leafpool asked, keeping pace with them. She was a little confused. This was the first dream from StarClan that she had ever had where she truly spoke to the cats of StarClan, where she was free to ask questions that were answered, and she kept expecting the vision to fade away.

"I, too, once had a love," Yellowfang answered. "Raggedstar."

A former leader of ShadowClan, and the father of Brokentail, one of ShadowClan's most fearsome leaders! Leafpool almost gasped aloud. Certainly she stared as Yellowfang went on, "I loved him, even though I knew that I shouldn't have. And I had a kit."

"A kit?" Leafpool repeated, and something registered in her brain. "Brokentail?"

"Yes," Yellowfang admitted. "And proof of the wrath of StarClan is how he turned out. It was because of my breaking of the medicine cats' code that Brokentail was the way he was."

"So...so you're telling me that I should stay away from Crowfeather?" Leafpool mewed, her heart falling again.

"No, Leafpool. I haven't finished yet." Yellowfang meowed. "True, Brokentail did many terrible things. And in the end I killed him with my own supply of deathberries. But it is also true that, without Tigerstar's plotting with Brokentail, Firestar may have never been able to prove his treachery. He may have made himself leader of ThunderClan, if it hadn't been for that failed plot."

Leafpool stopped, utterly bewildered now. Yellowfang gazed at her, an enigma of thoughts and knowledge inside her wide orange eyes. "What I mean to tell you is that every situation has outcomes...good and bad. I still do not regret my love of Raggedstar- and, as you see now, StarClan has forgiven me for all I did wrong."

Leafpool was still confused. She hadn't solved anything yet. Somehow she had expected StarClan to have the answer to all her troubles, but she knew now that it wasn't true. Then Spottedleaf looked at her. "Leafpool," she meowed urgently, "Our time together is at it's end. But I must warn you that there is trouble prowling through the forest- trouble that lives outside your own mind."

_The rouges! _Leafpool guessed, but before she could even ask Spottedleaf and Yellowfang turned away, and they began to melt like the snow did with the first thaw. But Yellowfang called back to her, and she was not speaking of the danger that Spottedleaf had hinted at. "In the end," she meowed, "You shouldn't give a mouse's tail what is right, and what others say. It's a question of what you feel. And what do you answer to, Leafpool? Your will...or your heart?"

**Whew, long chappie, I know! Hope you liked it, and, as always, reviews are good! Also, a big WOOT for the (brief)return of Yellowfang!**


	14. Chapter 14

**I CAN LOG IN AGAIN. WOOT! Okay, I have like three chappies done, so I'll probably post again today. This one is Squirrelflight's POV. Enjoy!**

Half a moon later, Squirrelflight stood on the log that formed the path from the Clans' territory to the island. She watched Leafpool ahead of her. As usual lately, her sister seemed a little downtrodden. Her tail was curling around her legs and there was a nervous light flickering in her eyes. She didn't seem at all keen to get to the Gathering.

Brambleclaw, too, seemed distracted. His long claws sunk into the bark of the fallen tree and then retracted again as he walked beside Squirrelflight. She wondered if he was anticipating seeing Hawkfrost again, and told herself not to bother with it. She was too fond of being on speaking terms with him to bring up the issue once more.

Firestar led the ThunderClan cats onto the island, and they fanned out to find their friends among the other Clans, all of which were already here. Squirrelflight scanned the group for her friends and then turned, startled, as a furry form cannoned into her side. "Hey, Squirrelflight!"

It was Smokepaw, a ShadowClan apprentice she had made friends with on their journey to the new place. His gold eyes gleamed at her in a friendly way, and she was faintly surprised that he so easily dismissed the hostility between their Clans. "Hi, Smokepaw," she meowed.

"It's Smokepelt now," he corrected, his chest puffing out with pride. "I'm a warrior! Can you believe it?"

"That's great!" she purred, giving him a lick of congratulations just as a RiverClan she-cat bounded over. "Hi, Smokepaw, Squirrelflight," she meowed, nodding.

Squirrelflight flicked her tail in return as Smokepelt excitedly told her his new name. Splashpaw congratulated him as Squirrelflight had, though the ginger she-cat noticed that her white fur, splotched with gray, prickled with jealousy. "You'll be made a warrior too, soon," she told her supportingly.

"I hope so!" Splashpaw replied, pricking up her ears.

Smokepelt turned his eyes on Squirrelflight. "I heard about the border fight," he meowed in an undertone. "Cedarheart said that _Graystripe _showed up for the battle!"

Splashpaw's light blue eyes widened, and Squirrelflight's whiskers twitched. "He did," she meowed. "He's back!"

"Wow!" mewed the RiverClan she-cat. "He escaped from Twolegs?"

"Yeah," Squirrelflight mewed, and the two others shook their heads in awe. The ThunderClan she-cat looked away for a moment and spotted Graystripe herself. A large group of cats from all the Clans were gathered around him as he told his tale, his eyes shining. Firestar was nearby, his tail twitching in amusement, and she saw Mistyfoot, Russetfur, and all the elders present at the Gathering among those around him.

"Hey, Squirrelflight." The voice behind her made her turn away. Crowfeather was behind her. His tail twitched like a trapped adder, and his ears flicked nervously as if he was ridding them of falling rain.

"Hi, Crowfeather," she returned, dipping her head. "How's life in Wind-"

"Have you seen your sister anywhere?" He interrupted her, and she fancied she saw his eyes widen even further.

"Leafpool?" Squirrelflight was surprised. As far as she knew, Crowfeather didn't even _know _Leafpool. She'd only seen him snap at her once, on one of the first nights after they'd arrived at the lake. Then she remembered that Crowfeather had been the one fighting the rouges with Leafpool about a half-moon ago. She shrugged. "She's probably with the other medicine cats. I haven't seen her since we arrived."

Crowfeather nodded and set off. Squirrelflight watched him as he threaded his way through the cats, towards the knot of medicine cats near the Great Oak. But as soon as he neared, Leafpool broke away from them and set off for Sorreltail and Brackenfur, who were talking to Swallowtail of RiverClan.

_Just a coincidence? _Squirrelflight couldn't help wondering. _Or is she avoiding him?_

She was too far away to see either Crowfeather or Leafpool's expression, and at that moment the leaders made their way towards the tree. Leopardstar gave the summoning yowl, though it was Firestar that spoke first. He relayed the news of Graystripe's turn, which was met by celebration, if not surprise. The gossip of the ThunderClan deputy's return had spread through the Gathering faster than a wildfire.

Firestar's green eyes narrowed slightly, and Squirrelflight realized what was coming a moment before he spoke. "Rouges have been seen on ThunderClan land," he meowed. "We chased them off once, with the help of the WindClan warrior Crowfeather."

There was a murmur at his words, but Leopardstar and Blackstar didn't seem terribly worried. After all, if the rouges had been sniffing around all the way at the ThunderClan and WindClan border, there was little chance they could have made thier way all the way over to either of the other two territories. Blackstar's ears were flattening as Firestar turned to him, and Squirrelflight felt her claws start to unsheathe as her father meowed, "Blackstar, your warriors have been hunting in our land. We have chased you off once now. Do we need to do so again?"

Squirrelflight could hear Blackstar's growl clearly from where she sat, a good sitance away from the Great Oak. "Leaf-bare is not yet over, Firestar," he meowed, "And ShadowClan has kits to feed."

"Does that mean you have to invade my territory?" Firestar shot back. "After all, Blackstar, it was you that set the scent marks in the first place."

Blackstar's eyes were glittering slits of anger, but he said nothing more, and Firestar lifted his tail in triumph. Squirrelflight's fur flattened as she sensed that the argument was over, and Onestar took a couple of pawsteps forward to speak.

"Firestar speaks truly of the rouges," he meowed. "They are currently living outside of WindClan territory, though not far away from our borders. Our patrols have scented them entering our land, though we haven't caught them yet. There is something else, as well..." He drew the word out and his head swiveled slightly to the side. "My warriors have scented RiverClan inside our land."

Instantly Leopardstar had leaped to Onestar's branch. "My warriors have stayed well within our borders, Onestar," she meowed, a hiss embedded in her voice.

"Scent doesn't lie," Onestar returned, holding his ground.

Their hostility was as sharp as it had been in between Firestar and Blackstar mere moments before, and Squirrelflight's tail lashed nervously as the RiverClan and ShadowClan cats sprang swiftly apart, beginning to meow support of their leaders from below. Leopardstar's golden gaze swept over them as she let out a growl. "I tell you, Onestar, that I have no interest in invading WindClan. I trust my Clan feels the same."

"Do you?" Blackstar's rumbling voice completely drowned out Onestar's reply as he turned on the dappled RiverClan leader. "Clearly, Leopardstar, you had little control over the warriors that attacked WindClan little more than a moon ago."

Hawkfrost again. Squirrelflight looked around and saw that the dark tabby was only about a tail-length behind her. Brambleclaw was beside him, watching as his half-brother got to his paws. "Onestar," he called, his deep mew rattling through the island, "What business does RiverClan have on your land? I was among the cats that saw the clear sign of lightning that showed you were the leader for your Clan. And would any of us dare doubt StarClan?"

He spoke so certainly, so clearly, that Squirrelflight found herself swaying in his favor. Onestar looked down at him, a thoughtful look on his face, and Leopardstar nodded in approval of her warrior. Firestar too let his eyes rest on Tigerstar's son before he jumped to a branch near the two leaders. "Onestar," he meowed, "Is it possible that your warriors were mistaken in what they scented?"

Ashfoot commented from the base of the Great Oak, "The scent was faint, and the winds are strong off the lake. It could have been only carried scent that we caught."

Onestar lifted his tail, acknowledging this. "Very well," he decided, and turned to Leopardstar. "I won't make any further accusations against you unless I have the proof with my own senses."

Leopardstar's chin lifted, and her fur fell flat as she came forward to report her own news. Squirrelflight was no longer paying attention, however. Between rouges, invasion of borders, and confused feelings that billowed inside her about Hawkfrost and Brambleclaw, it seemed unreal to her that it hadn't been that long ago when one of her troubles had been whether or not Crowfeather and Leafpool were friends.

**Tehe. Just to show Squirrelflight's obliviousness about what's going on with Leafpool. I know this chappie doesn't make too much sense yet (RiverClan in WindClan territory, WHAT?) but it will soon. Promise!**

**Reviews are appriciated!**


	15. Chapter 15

**Okay, Frostpaw and Brackenfur1 have pointed it out already- I MADE A MISTAKE. (gasp!) Smokepaw does die in Dawn, but I wrote that last chappie late at night and grabbed Dawn instead of Starlight to look up an apprentice I could use. Sorry! **

**That last chappie wasn't my best work, anyway. I like this one a lot better. Brambleclaw's POV. Hope you like it!**

A few suns after the Gathering, Brambleclaw rose from his nest around sunhigh. He had taken out the dawn patrol and then returned to the warriors' den for a nap. Now he was awakening again, feeling refreshed and ready for another patrol. He had promised that he would take Sunpaw out.

There was much about the new apprentice that he didn't know, but he was oddly fond of her. She was a good hunter and fighter, and already was starting to feel the fire of ThunderClan loyalty. Brambleclaw liked her keenness, her stubborness, and her shrewdness, all of which reminded him ironically of Tawnypelt. Graystripe was her official mentor, though Brambleclaw took her hunting or patrolling often.

As he passed the nursery, he saw Ferncloud and Sorreltail standing there, conversing quietly. Sorreltail looked up when she saw him, and he was surprised at the nervous glee that swam in her eyes. "Hey, Brambleclaw!" she meowed excitedly. "Guess what?"

Before he could say anything, she blurted out, "Cinderpelt says I'm due to have kits!"

"Congratulations!" he mewed, bounding forward to nudge her in a friendly way. He reminded himself to congratulate Brackenfur as well. There was no question as to who had fathered these kits.

Ferncloud nodded, and she looked fondly towards where Birchkit was, across the clearing. Goldenflower was playing with him, tossing dry leaves into the air for him to chase, purring when he made a catch. "He'll be an apprentice before too long," she meowed. There was pride in her voice, but also a bit of sorrow as she thought of finally letting her last surviving kit go.

Sorreltail pressed her side against Ferncloud's, and the two queens set off together, possibly talking energetically about their kits' futures. Brambleclaw watched them go, and then was distracted as Sunpaw came leaping across the clearing to his side. "Are we going, Brambleclaw?" she meowed, and then sank down into a playful crouch, her white tail-tip twitching in the air. "Or do you want to gossip with the queens all day?"

"Words catch no prey," Brambleclaw returned. It was a quote that he had heard long ago, from the mouth of ThunderClan's old deputy Whitestorm. Then he reared up. "Come on, then," he meowed. "I'll race you to the old Thunderpath!"

&&&

Brambleclaw was panting as he skidded to a halt near the fallen Thunderpath. He had enjoyed his race with Sunpaw. There was something about running that made it possible for him to forget all his troubles, which had been piling up since the Gathering. Hawkfrost...rouges...ShadowClan. Tigerstar. Though Brambleclaw had had no more dreams about his father, the lingering memory of that one visit was still clear in his mind. He and Hawkfrost hadn't spoken about it during the Gathering, but Brambleclaw had seen in his half-brother's icy blue gaze that he did not completely believe the stories of his father's evil. But did that mean that he would take Tigerstar's advice seriously, and embrace the ambition that Brambleclaw stoutly pushed away?

_No, _Brambleclaw told himself. _I'm thinking like Squirrelflight. Hawkfrost isn't like that. He saved my life!_

Squirrelflight. At least he didn't have to worry about his ongoing quarrel with the she-cat anymore. She seemed to have forgotten all the bitterness she had felt towards him. But there was still a rift between them, a snag. Brambleclaw wasn't sure what it was.

"Brambleclaw?" mewed Sunpaw, prodding him. "Are you paying attention at all?"

"Yes," Brambleclaw mewed defensively, lifting his head.

"Oh, okay," she meowed, rolling her wide eyes. "So you're teaching me a new way to hunt, then? Trodding on the mice instead of pouncing on them? I'm sure you'll have them all scurrying into their burrows, fleeing from your mighty paws!"

Brambleclaw couldn't keep his whiskers from twitching in amusement. It amazed him that Sunpaw was able to make so many jokes, after such a long time spent in the dreary place of Twolegs. Perhaps, he conceeded, you needed a sense of humor to survive such a place.

Egged on, Sunpaw twitched her white tail-tip. "Of course," she went on, "You might run into a bit of trouble when you trip over a fat one. Or don't look where you're going, and get your paw stuck in a mole-hole."

Brambleclaw swiped at her ear. "Fine then," he meowed. "Let's see how _you _hunt, Mighty Apprentice."

Sunpaw gave him a withering look from bright eyes, and Brambleclaw felt his fur stand on end. She had such odd eyes. They were green, but not merely _green_. There were undertones of blue, of brown, of everything in between. A forest of color, if you looked close enough.

_Of course, she's seen a forest of things to go along with it, _Brambleclaw thought, crouching down to watch as she crept up on a vole. Graystripe was teaching her well, and she used the right stalk as she neared it, and killed it quickly and cleanly. He expected her to come trotting back, pleased with her victory, but she kept sniffing at the ground, her golden fur beginning to bristle.

"Brambleclaw," she meowed nervously. "Brambleclaw, I think there's rogue scent here!"

Brambleclaw leaped over and began to scent the place too. "There is," he meowed, after a moment. "Fresh, too. They must have moved out of WindClan."

"And back here," Sunpaw added, falling back into her crouch, claws extended. "Shall we follow the scent, then? Chase them out if we can?"

"We should follow it," Brambleclaw meowed. "But I doubt we could chase them off if we found them. Not by ourselves, anyway. We'll need a patrol for that. Still, it wouldn't hurt to see if we can find out where they're hiding." He was about to take the lead, then decided this would be a good time to see how well Sunpaw's training was coming. "All right," he mewed, taking a pace back. "Lead on."

Sunpaw leaped forward without hesitation and began to track the scent. Brambleclaw hovered behind her, making sure she was still on track but not helping her hold the scent. She was doing well, so close to the turf her whiskers brushed the dust and a look of intense concentration on her young face. Brambleclaw made a note to tell Graystripe how well she was doing. Clearly the Twolegs had done nothing to dull her claws.

After a while, though the trail was still clear, she came to an abrupt halt. "There's an odd scent here," she mewed uncertainly. "I don't know all the Clan scents well...is that RiverClan?"

Alarmed, Brambleclaw came forward, rubbing his cheek against the nettle stem she indicated. A scent flooded his glands, and it made his spine stiffen. It was several heartbeats before he could figure out what to do, several more before he could compose himself enough to turn back to Sunpaw.

"It's only more rogue," he meowed. "And we'll have to stop here. It gets pretty boggy up ahead, and we won't be able to follow it through there."

"Oh, okay," Sunpaw meowed, clearly disappointed. She stood upright. "I need to get my scents straight," she commented. "Confusing RiverClan with rogue!" She looked suddenly thoughtful. "For a moment I thought it was _your _scent, Brambleclaw. Sure smells like it!"

Brambleclaw swallowed painfully and quickly thought up a response. "Are you saying I smell like a rogue?" he asked, feigning disgust.

"Well, you never know..." Sunpaw mewed teasingly, and she ducked as Brambleclaw swiped at her again and set off back for camp, mumbling something about getting Graystripe to take her on a tour of the territories so that she could get her scents figured out.

Once he was sure she was gone, Brambleclaw carefully added his own scent to the area, so it would be easier to find later. He felt bad, for he had lied to Sunpaw. Not once, either, but twice. First off, there was no bog ahead, and they could have followed the scent with relative ease.

Secondly, the scent before him wasn't rogue, but RiverClan. And it was not just any RiverClan scent, but Hawkfrost's.

**DUN DUN DUN...what'll happen next?**

**Reviews are appriciated!**


	16. Chapter 16

**Hey, all! New chappie's UP. Still Brambleclaw's POV. Thanx to all new reviewers. And while you're not reading my stories (tehe) I'd recommend Ravenpelt's A New Beginning (same topic as mine, but taken differently and ver ver good) Rainpath's Tawnypelt (they're totally right, there need to be some more stories about Tawnypelt, and theirs is totally awesome!) and Dewflower's The Story of Sparkle (also awesome, well-written, and includes RAVENPAW and BLOODCLAN, so it's on my list).**

**Oh yeah, the actual story...**

The night was eerily still as Brambleclaw trudged through the forest, under the watchful eye of the waning moon. He looked up at it warily and then looked back down at his paws. Thoughts swam through his mind like fish through a stream- and they were just as hard to keep a hold on.

He was afraid of what he would find when he did reach the end of Hawkfrost's trail. Obviously his half-brother had been meeting with the rogues. But what was he planning on doing with them? It was so like a trick Tigerstar had once pulled. He had gathered a group of Brokentail's old followers and used them to attack the ThunderClan camp. He was going to kill Bluestar under the cover of the battle. Luckily Firestar had found him out.

_But Firestar's not here now, _Brambleclaw realized. _He's not going to save me this time. Not going to save the Clan. He's done his part._

_But does that mean it's my turn? Or will I not be able to do anything at all?  
_

He shook his head and plodded on. For a while he had considered telling his leader of what he had smelled, but he knew Firestar would be quick to turn against Hawkfrost. And if he could stop his half-brother before he did any real harm, he might be able to save him from that harm. Brambleclaw knew first-handedly how hard it was to prove yourself as Tigerstar's son, and he found himself wanting to make it easier for Hawkfrost, rather than harder.

_But what if he really is planning to do something evil with the rogues? _wondered Brambleclaw. _Then what will I do?_

He had no answer, so he stopped thinking and continued walking. All too soon he had reached the place where he and Sunpaw had found Hawkfrost's scent. Brambleclaw looked carefully around him before he brought his nose to the ground, getting a good sniff of his brother's smell. Then he began to track, even more cautiously than before, if possible.

Graystripe had been guarding the camp when Brambleclaw had sneaked out. Brambleclaw was just as glad as everyone else to have the deputy back, but he couldn't help wondering if there was a chance that, if Graystripe hadn't come back, he would be made deputy. That ambition was cold and hard inside him, like ice that would never melt. He did his best to push it aside, but he couldn't really. Hawkfrost had been right. It was who he was.

The rogue scent was strong around him now. He was nearing the edge of ThunderClan territory, into the lands where the Moonpool lay. Brambleclaw had never been this far before, and he unconsciously noted the amount of prey, wondering if Firestar would want to use it later as part of ThunderClan's land.

A soft mew broke the thin stillness, and Brambleclaw's claws sank instinctively into the ground. Up ahead he saw a flash of tabby fur that could have been his own. Hawkfrost! He dove into a holly bush just in time to watch his half-brother pass by ahead of him, looking just as careful as Brambleclaw had been while walking.

_What are you doing here? _Brambleclaw almost voiced the question aloud. Instead he narrowed his eyes and crept out of the holly bush, resuming his stalk as he followed his kin. Hawkfrost's scent was mingling with the rogue's now. So they had met up. The telltale flash of ginger fur in the undergrowth confirmed it- he remembered the black-and-ginger she-cat from the battle.

Hawkfrost, the rogue leader, and several others were walking ahead. They ducked into a shallow clearing lined with thick ivy, and Brambleclaw flattened himself in the dark leaves, peering out to watch them, his heart pounding worriedly as the last hope that this might have all been a mistake flooded away.

"Why should we attack?" growled the rogue leader. "What would be in it for us?"

"A share of the territory," replied Hawkfrost promptly. "And no argument with it. You would mark it yourselves, and the prey would be yours for the taking."

"No more wandering?" mewed a rogue behind the black-and-ginger she-cat, a thoughtful flash in his orange eyes. She turned on him with a sharp hiss, commanding silence, and then looked back at Hawkfrost. "And how do we know that we can trust you?"

"I've come to speak to you, haven't I?" Hawkfrost meowed. "You could have easily killed me."

She tipped her head to one side, considering. "And you say that this...Clan...that you wish for us to attack, they are weak?"

"Definately." Hawkfrost's blue eyes glinted coldly. "They've suffered hardships lately."

_Which Clan is he talking about? _Brambleclaw thought. _WindClan's had trouble, with Mudclaw and all. RiverClan and ShadowClan both lost warriors during that last battle. Or, _he added with a surge of fear, _it could be ThunderClan. Every Clan suffered on this journey, after all._

"I tell you, Ginger," Hawkfrost meowed, "This is a good offer. I will be fighting with you, and as many cats of my own Clan that I can persuade."

Ginger's tail lifted, and her lip curled. "Hawkfrost," she meowed, "I think you may need to consider what you're doing with another cat first."

"What?" There was a challenge in Hawkfrost's growl. "What are you talking about?"

"Why, that cat in the ivy," meowed Ginger innocently. "_He _seems quite interested in what you're doing, to follow you all the way here."

Brambleclaw's entire body turned as rigid as ice, for her revealing of his postion had been completely unexpected. He wondered if he could run, but Hawkfrost was already heading towards his hiding place, curious and hostile. "Who is it?" he snarled. He sniffed at his half-brother's hiding place, and then his eyes snapped open wide. "_Brambleclaw? _How'd you ever get here?"

"I smelled your scent on patrol today." Brambleclaw pushed his way out into the open, figuring there was no sense in hiding anymore. "And I followed it tonight." Anger and the cold feeling of betrayal hit him in the heart, urging him on. "How could you do this, Hawkfrost? Attack a Clan and turn it over to rogues? This is the kind of thing that got Tigerstar exiled! This is breaking the warrior code!"

Before answering him, Hawkfrost whipped around to face Ginger. "I'll deal with him," he promised. "And meet you back at your dens. Go on."

Ginger's black-surrounded eye gleamed in a cold way, like a star, and Brambleclaw was sure she did not quite turst him as if she did not quite trust him. But the tabby warrior's muscles bunched beneath his pelt, and she decided to leave, taking her rogue warriors with her. Brambleclaw faced Hawkfrost once they had disappeared beyond the ivy, his tail lashing around his hindlegs and waitng for what his half-brother would say.

"Brambleclaw." Suddenly Hawkfrost sounded pleading, desperate. "I'm not trying to do anything wrong."

Brambleclaw snorted, and Hawkfrost kneaded the ground with his paws. "Listen to me. Every cat knows how cold ShadowClan is. They had Brokentail, who was one of the worst leaders ever known. They had Tigerstar. And Blackstar isn't much better, you know he isn't. You told me how he murdered Stonefur!"

Brambleclaw flattened his ears. It still wasn't adding up to him. Hawkfrost shook his head. "With the rogues we can drive them out, Brambleclaw! Get rid of them forever, so that there'll be peace. Without ShadowClan, the Clans could all live without battles. ShadowClan start all the trouble, all the wars, all the prety theft .And on the journey? How many times did Blackstar snarl or snap to get his way?"

"So you'll turn their territory over to rogues?" Brambleclaw spat. "How would that solve anything?"

"No, listen." Hawkfrost bent close, as if in precaution in case the rogues were still watching. "As soon as they help us, we'll get rid of them too. All of RiverClan will help with that. ThunderClan too...if you persuade them."

Brambleclaw's eyes widened, and he stared at his kin as if seeing him for the first time. "You sound like Tigerstar," he whispered. "That's what he tried to do with BloodClan. It won't work, Hawkfrost. And it's far too dangerous. And Leopardstar would never approve of you trying to force out another Clan."

Hawkfrost took a pace back, and he sat down. His eyes lifted to the stars. "I have to do this, Brambleclaw," he mewed. "Something like this, anyway. I have to make a name for myself. Make myself great, a legend. I have to."

In the ivy, another cat saw Brambleclaw's eyes flash with a deep understanding that went beyond his thoughts, into his heart. The cat in the bushes felt their own heart clench with dread as the ambition that had claimed Hawkfrost, had claimed Tigerstar, swam over Brambleclaw's eyes. And the cat in the bushes couldn't help wondering if the ambition would take Brambleclaw too.

"No, StarClan, no," whispered the cat.

But neither Hawkfrost nor Brambleclaw heard them.

**Another cliffie, and another guess-who type of situation. Who can guess who the cat is? Go on- guess!**

**Reviews are appriciated, too!**


	17. Chapter 17

**Chappie #17 is here. It would have been here sooner, but I wrote it, trashed it, wrote it again, then trashed it again. Finally I got this version, which I'm not totally happy with, but is way better than what I had before. (Also, I have to get something out, under the threats of Tigerstripe) Anyway, I hope you all like it! I only have one chapter going after this one, and then the epilouge. But I'll consider a sequal if I get enough reviews that want one.**

**Mostly all of you guessed right about the cat (not that it was the hardest riddle in the world or anything). Still, good guesses all of you, and enjoy!**

"You're a fool, Hawkfrost."

Squirrelflight had to clamp her muzzle shut to keep herself from gasping aloud. Of all the things she had thought Brambleclaw might say, that was not one of them. She crouched even lower in the ivy, a dark green leaf tickling her nose, her eyes of the same color fixated on the two tomcats that sat in front of her.

She had followed Brambleclaw from the camp. She wasn't quite sure why, though she knew it was a combination of suspicion, curiosity, and her own foolish wonderment. She had sneaked out after the tabby tom, making up a story to the camp guard Graystripe about late night hunting and not to expect them back before dawn. So it would be morning before they were missed- both of them, since Squirrelflight had included Brambleclaw in her cover story.

Hawkfrost looked at Brambleclaw. There was surprise in his icy eyes, but not anger. "What?" he meowed. "What do you mean?"

"You're being a fool," Brambleclaw repeated. "Believing what Tigerstar tells you in dreams. Trying to take over ShadowClan with a group of rogues. And trying to convince yourself that you're doing it because of honor. You're not even close."

For a moment Hawkfrost crouched low as if he may spring upon his half-brother, and Squirrelflight's muscles tightened as she readied herself to intercept him before he could touch Brambleclaw. But then he relaxed, and he looked up at the other tom, his light eyes searching, a desperatehopelessness dulling his movements."What do I do, Brambleclaw?" he whispered. "Fight him? How can I? He comes in my dreams, you know. All the time."

Squirrelflight was lost, but Brambleclaw was ready with his response. "Don't believe him, Hawkfrost. Don't listen to him. He is nothing more than shadow and memory. Because he is dead."

"And it hasn't stopped him." Hawkfrost pointed out. "He's powerful, Brambleclaw. More powerful than any other cat before him...or after. So how can I fight him? Especially when, no matter how much you deny it, we are just like him!"

"No," snapped Brambleclaw, and there was a fire in his eyes warmed Squirrelflight to the core. She watched as he paced to the edge of the ivy and threw back his head as if he was trying to find Tigerstar prowling through the darkest parts of the sky. "He can't tell me what to do. Not anymore. And you say he is powerful? Then how come he was murdered by a rogue half his size? How come he could lose all nine of his lives in a single swipe? And how come, no matter how hard he tried, he could never defeat Firestar?"

Hawkfrost's gaze was full of shame, and he dropped his head, scuffling at the earth. "You're right," he murmured. "Of course you are. But I just thought...never mind. So what do we do now?"

"Stop the rogues," Brambleclaw answered.

"How? Even if I'm not there, they'll still attack. Though it may not be ShadowClan. It may be your Clan. Because it's closest."

Squirrelflight's fur bristled, but Brambleclaw had already anticipated this. "Then we'll stop them," he announced. "You and me. Together."

That was too much for the young she-cat in the bushes, and she leaped out into the open, startling them both with her yowl. "No, Brambleclaw! Mouse-brain! You're going to follow _him _to the rogues...when you know that he's been speaking to them?"

Hawkfrost's eyes glared at her, and it was several heartbeats before Brambleclaw could recover from the surprise. "Squirrelflight! You-"

"Followed you." She answered for him. "Yes. And I'm glad that I did."

"Why?" Hawkfrost challenged. "This isn't any of your business!"

"And whose territory are you on?" Squirrelflight snarled, but Brambleclaw cut her off. "I'm going with him, Squirrelflight. We'll figure out some way to get the rogues out."

"Oh, right." Squirrelflight rolled her eyes. "I'm going to let you ramble off with this piece of fox dung..._alone_...to chat with battle-ready rogues? Not likely!"

"You can trust me," Hawkfrost meowed. But Squirrelflightshe pushed away the sincerity that rang true in his tone, flattening her ears as he meowed,"Brambleclaw's right. This isn't the way."

"Oh, so _now _you're all ready to agree?" Squirrelflight spat.

"I was wrong," Hawkfrost meowed. "I'll admit it. And now I have to make things right again."

"He's right, Squirrelflight," Brambleclaw meowed, in between them. "You have to trust him."

"Trust him! Give me a reason to. Go on!" Squirrelflight's eyes locked with his, and his amber stare kept her from moving at all.

"You should trust him because I do. And you should trust me because...because I love you, Squirrelflight, all right?"

StarClan themselves may as well have appeared. Squirrelflight imagined that the shock of seeing them in all their silver glory wouldn't match the wonderment she felt then. Brambleclaw's mouth was partially open, as if he was not quite sure of what he had just said. Hawkfrost seemed to be trying hard to pretend that he wasn't there, and he was doing a fairly good job, for neither of the ThunderClan cats even looked his way.

_He loves me. He does. After all we've been through, after all we did- both of us, bad and good- he still loves me. After Hawkfrost and Mudclaw. After I ignored him. He still does._

And he was still staring at her, his amber eyes huge and soft. There was a question there, too, a wondering. He was waiting for her to speak.

Squirrelflight stared back at him, and then she felt a purr start up of its own accord. She found her whiskers twitching at his hopeful, wary eyes, and she knew what she had to say. "Oh Brambleclaw, Brambleclaw, of course I love you too! Why else would I care so much?"

"Because you're annoying, nosy, and stubborn," Brambleclaw mewed, but there was laughter in his voice. He stepped towards her and they touched noses. Squirrelflight breathed in his scent, and somehow it was different than she remembered. But that wasn't a bad thing.

She had forgotten their argument, their situation, and she would have gladly floated there in the oblivion of nothing with Brambleclaw forever- but he brought her back to earth. "I have to go, you do know that?" he meowed. "With Hawkfrost. We'll figure out a way to stop the rogues."

"How?"

Hawkfrost carefully took a pawstep forward, his ears twitching. "We'll figure out a way," he meowed with certainty. "We are smart and strong...just like our father was."

His comment would have once made Squirrelflight flinch, but she didn't even blink. Somehow it all fit together for her now. It _didn't _matter, did it? Tigerstar had nothing to do with them! Not anymore. Just as Brambleclaw had said."Can I at least go with you?" she asked.

"No!" They both meowed at once, and then Brambleclaw continued, "It'll be dangerous. We won't be fighting, after all. The last thing we need is extra claws. We'll have to outsmart them."

Squirrelflight tipped her head to one side. She didn't understand, but perhaps that was all right. Hawkfrost gave her a soft of half-nod before he padded off after the rogues. Brambleclaw hovered beside her for a moment before following. His muzzle brushed past her ear. "We'll be fine."

"Of course you will." She watched as he leaped away, catching up with his half-brother. They began mewing quietly to each other as they went, making up a split-second plan, using all the intelligence and cunning they had inherited- but, unlike Tigerstar, putting it to good use.

The moon flared silver in the sky, and the air was cold. But not the bone-chilling cold of leaf-bare, but the cool air that told Squirrelflight that something warmer was to come. Her tail twitched, and she got to her paws. There was no sense in waiting here. She somehow knew that Brambleclaw would manage this. And she also knew that, no matter what, she would always be back at camp, waiting for him- unless, of course, there was the chance that she could go with him. Just as she had done all those moons ago, when she had decided to go with him to the sun-drown-place.

**A little sappy...but cliffy-less, as some of you will be glad to see. Reviews are appriciated!**


	18. Chapter 18

**Okay, last chappie, peeps! Plus the epilogue, which I've already got written. This one's a little shorter, Leafpool's POV. And I've gotten a lot of requests for a sequal, so I'll organize what I'll do for it, promise!**

The combination of the cool breeze and Cinderpelt's sudden raspy snore woke Leafpool up. She lifted her head, blinking sleep out of her amber eyes, and then shivered as she remembered her dream. Images flashed in her mind, much clearer than most dreams she'd had.

Running through the forest...hiding in the ivy. Listening to Brambleclaw's conversation with Hawkfrost and then the RiverClan warrior's abrupt change of heart. Somehow that didn't add up to Leafpool, despite what Brambleclaw had said.

_But it was only a dream, anyway, _Leafpool reminded herself.

Or was it? Leafpool rarely remembered dreams so clearly- unless they were signs from StarClan. Were her warrior anscestors warning her about Hawkfrost?

Or was it all nonesense? Leafpool didn't know, and her frustration was mounting when she heard Graystripe's mew. "Back from hunting, are you?"

The answer came: "Yeah. I couldn't find anything, though."

Leafpool rushed to the mouth of the cave in time to see Squirrelflight dip her head to Graystripe and set off for the warriors' den. Leafpool looked after her curiously. There had been occasions before when she had been with her sister as she dreamed. Was that what had happened now?

Then Squirrelflight spotted her. "Leafpool! What are you doing up?"

"I..." Leafpool was reluctant to let her sister know she was suspicious of where she had been- especially since she was hiding so much from Squirrelflight already. Why give her a reason to watch Leafpool more closely? "I ate a bit of tough fresh-kill before I went to sleep. It was keeping me awake- bellyache, you know."

Squirrelflight nodded, and Leafpool could see that there were too many thoughts in her own mind for her to catch her sister's lie. "Well, I hope you feel better." She started off, and then looked back for a moment. "And Leafpool? Don't...don't go wandering out tonight, all right? I...just don't."

Well, that settled it. The dream had been real. Why else would Squirrelflight be so concerned if Leafpool left the camp? She was obviously thinking of the rogues. Leafpool stared at her for a moment, wondering if Squirrelflight was going to tell her about it. But her sister didn't, and after a while the medicine cat just nodded.

Squirrelflight looked relieved, and she shot a glance towards the camp entrance. Then she looked back at her sister, finally catching Leafpool's eye. The tabby she-cat saw a light in Squirrelflight's green gaze, a warmth that had abandoned Leafpool herself long ago.

A lightning bolt of giddy joy hit Leafpool, a feeling that was not her own, but that danced inside her like new life, that made her fur bristle and her paws prickle. And suddenly she was able to recall the end of the dream- Brambleclaw's declaration of love for Squirrelflight.

It was a good thing that Squirrelflight turned away then, for there was no hiding the rush of horrible self-pity that clouded Leafpool's face. Her whiskers drooped, her tail fell, and her ears flattened. There was a spark of happiness for her sister inside her, but it was hidden in her own pain.

And then she was back at the Gathering, talking to the medicine cats, when she saw Crowfeather coming. She leaped away into the shadows, to nervous, too unwilling to speak to him.

_How come I can't love him? Why is everyone- Sorreltail, Squirrelflight, Brambleclaw- how come they can follow their hearts, are certain where they will lead them, when I can't be sure?  
_

It was so simple for the warriors. They were allowed to do what they wished. They didn't have so many rules- and the wrath of StarClan- holding them back. But Leafpool did. Leafpool was bound in the codes that she had sworn she would never break.

Yellowfang's words came to her again. _What do you answer to, Leafpool? Your mind or your heart?_

Firestar led ThunderClan as his heart willed him to. Squirrelflight had answered to her heart tonight- when she had spoken of her love to Brambleclaw, and when she had let him take care of the rogues with Hawkfrost, despite her better judgement.

But what did Leafpool listen to? Her heart had led her to the WindClan border the night o fher dream with Feathertail. But her mind had made her turn away from Crowfeather that very same night.

_So what do I do now? _Leafpool wondered. _What is right?  
_

She didn't know. How could she go and find Crowfeather, against the will of StarClan? Leafpool's eyes squeezed shut as she imagined her warrior anscestors sending lightning down on her in their anger- just as they had struck it against the tree to murder Muclaw, not so long ago.

A raspy caw sounded through the air. Leafpool's ears twitched and her eyes snapped open at the sound. She saw the crow- almost the same color as the night behind it- lighted down on the edge of the stone hollow. Leafpool stared at it, and she remembered the feeling, that warm, obvious joy that had registered inside of her, when she had last seen a crow. That had been in her dream, when she had realized what Feathertail had meant. That freedom she had felt. Leafpool's fur tingled, and it was in the beady eyes of the ugly bird that she saw the truth inside her.

_I love him. I love him and nothing- not me, not honor, not StarClan- will ever stop that._

And then suddenly she was on her paws. Leafpool's heart purred, for she knew what she had to do now. But no, this was what she _wanted _to do.

She made her way through the camp entrance. The thorns made barely a sound as she squeezed through, and she was ignored by the drowsy Graystripe, who was heading for the warriors' den in search of Whitewhisker, who was supposed to replace him on guard.

Leafpool paused at the top of the hollow and scented the air. She wondered at the rogues. How were Brambleclaw and Hawkfrost going to get rid of them? She wasn't sure, but she was certain they could do it. Besides, they weren't her biggest worry right now- she was headed in another direction.

The young she-cat was almost dancing across the dark land. For the first time in what seemed like forever, her mind was empty, her heart clear to her. And as she went, StarClan did not send lightning to block her path. But, in truth, it wouldn't have mattered. For Leafpool would have only dodged round it and continued to run.

**Leafpool's on board. Will they be together? Reviews are appriciated (of course)!**


	19. Epilogue

**Epilogue's ready, people! I had a lot of fun writing this story, and I hope that you guys liked reading it. I'm already hard at work on the sequel- I'll probably call it "Sunset: My Version", btw. Anyway, POV. You'll see...**

A lone cat walked the moors of WindClan. Dense fog filled the air around him, and his blackish gray pelt was merely a dark smudge against the horizon. Only his eyes, clear and blue, penetrated the gloom.

He had taken to patrolling by himself lately. He no longer felt comfortable with other cats, not even those of his Clan. He couldn't concentrate on meaningless conversation, and he didn't care about much of anything. His mind wandered so easily, and his heart, which had been shattered so long ago, had failed to repair. It thundered painfully now, but not in any familiar rhythm. No, his heart beat a name, the name of the one that he loved. But she didn't love him back- or she couldn't.

He regretted what he'd said, those moons ago at her camp. He knew it had been too sudden, to surprising. Besides, she stuck rigidly to the codes of honor she had sworn too, and she would never break them. Why did he expect her to, then? Especially when he had already loved another, and when he just been getting used to life grieving her?

But that was before the dreams had started. The dreams about another he had yet to love, the one that he could never identify, but somehow knew so well. The one that completed the half of him that had fallen apart when Feathertail had died.

_She said she loved me, _thought the gray-black cat. _Sort of. She said she felt as I did. But she didn't say it, not exactly._

He wanted to stop thinking about it, but his mind would not obey him. He saw her, running from him at the Gathering. He saw her, springing away from him when he had told her about his dream, when it had registered inside her that they could never be together, and that it was her that was stopping it...

_I love her. I would suffer at the paws of the cats of StarClan if it meant I could love her, if I could see her, speak to her freely. _

A rustling in nearby undergrowth made him prick his ears and remind himself that he was on patrol. He bared his teeth, remembering the rouges, but then his fur lay flat. He recognized the movement of the cat in the gorse before him. It was strange that he did. He had only spoken to her a few times, only known her for a couple of moons, but already he knew her as well as he did himself.

"What do you want, Leafpool?" he meowed, sitting back as she pushed her way all the way out into the open. She padded towards him unsteadily, and he stayed back, not permitting himself to feel the soft touch of her fur. But she came close, as if to make sure that he was listening to her.

"I have something to tell you, Crowfeather," she meowed. Her voice was feathery and light, as if she was a part of the fog herself. For a moment Crowfeather thought she was, and he was dreaming. But no, this was real. It was _real_...

"What is it?" he meowed, curiosity and hope laced thickly in his mew.

"I love you, Crowfeather," Leafpool meowed, and there was no regret in her tone, no worry. There was only truth, truth and clear realization that Crowfeather felt so strongly in himself. "I love you, and I'm sorry that it's taken me so long to say it. So sorry."

Crowfeather stayed silent for a couple of heartbeats. Not for any particular reason. Perhaps only to keep her waiting for a moment, to let her see the pain and wonder that had dominated him for so long. Then he answered her. "I love you too, Leafpool."

He brushed past her, his head rubbing against her cheek, her shoulder, her flank. Then he looked at her, into her amber eyes. Leafpool looked back.

Crowfeather's eyes were brimming over, but they held no answers to Leafpool's questions. They didn't tell her how they would manage to lie to their Clans, how they would face the wrath of StarClan as they broke the codes of the medicine cats and warriors. He didn't know what lay ahead, nor how to face it.

And still his eyes were full, like round circles of the morning sky. Leafpool stared into them, and she decided then, on the foggy, dreary moor, that the warmth and the love that she saw there was all that she would ever need.

**It's over...sob. Well, I'll get to work on the sequel!**


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